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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT; 




From the Series or\ft 
Canterbury Classtc&y 



Cbe Canterbury Classics 

A Series of Supplementary Readers 
edited under the general supervision of 

KATHARINE LEE BATES 

Professor of English Literature in 
Welles ley College^ Wellesley, Mass. 



The text of this edition of The Lady of 
the Lake agrees, except for a few unim- 
portant changes, mainly those of punc- 
tuation, with the 1833 edition of Scoffs 
works, the first complete collected edition 
published after Scott's death, 1832. 




Sir Walter Scott 

From the Painting by C. R. Leslie in the 

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass. 



Lady of tbc Lake 

By 

Sir Salter Scott, Bart 



Edited by 

Florus A. Barbour 

Professor of English 
Michigan State Normal College, Ypsilanti 

Illustrated 




Rand JMcJ^ally & Company 

Chicago New York London 



•A i 






Copyright, ipio 
By Rand McNally & Company 



The Rand-McNally Press 



§CLA2685 




THE series of Canterbury Classics aims to bear its share in 
acquainting school children with literature suited to their 
years. The culture of the imagination is no less impor- 
tant than the culture of memory and the reasoning power. That 
childhood is poor which has not for friends many of the goodly 
company represented by Hector, Achilles, Roland, Sigurd, My 
Cid, Don Quixote, Lancelot, Robin Hood, Percy, the Douglas, 
Gulliver, Puck, Rip Van Winkle, and Alice in Wonderland. 
College class-rooms, where Dante and Spenser, Goethe and 
Coleridge are taught, speedily feel the difference between 
minds nourished, from babyhood up, on myths of Olympus 
and myths of Asgard, Hans Christian Andersen, old ballads, 
the ' ' Pilgrim's Progress," the • ' Arabian Nights," the * ' Alham- 
bra," and minds which are still strangers to fairyland and 
hero-land and all the dreamlands of the world's inheritance. 
Minds of this latter description come almost as barbarians to 
the study of poetry, deaf to its music and blind to its visions. 
They are in a foreign clime. In the larger college of life, no 
less, is felt the lack of an early initiation into literature. A 
practical people in a practical age, we need the grace of fable 
to balance our fact, the joy of poetry to leaven our prose. 
Something of the sort we are bound to have, and if familiarity 
in childhood with the classic tone has not armed us against 
the cheap, the flimsy, the corrupt in fiction, we fall easy victims 
to the trash of the hour. We become the sport of those mock- 
ing elves who give dry leaves for gold. 

This series must needs conform somewhat, in its choice of 
books, to the present demands of the schools. It will furnish 
all good reading that is desired, but it aims also to help in 
arousing a desire for the more imaginative and inspiring legends 



6 Introduction to the Series 

of the Aryan race. In the case of every volume issued the text 
of the authoritative edition will be faithfully reproduced. 

These texts will be furnished with a modest amount of 
apparatus hidden away at the end of the book. It is the 
classic that is of importance. Often it may be best to disregard 
the notes. The series is addressed to children and aims to 
stimulate imagination, broaden sympathy, and awaken a love 
for literature. The editors strive to keep these aims in view 
and to avoid breaking the charm of the story by irrelevant and 
burdensome information. What is told is meant to be what a 
child would naturally like to know about the book that pleases 
him and the writer of the book. The biographical sketches 
emphasize, whenever it is appropriate, the childhood of the 
authors treated, and try throughout to give, by concrete illus- 
tration, impressions of personality and character. Special sub- 
jects sometimes call for special sketches, but, in general, the 
editorial work aims at quality rather than quantity. Knowledge 
which seems essential to intelligent reading, and which dic- 
tionary and teacher cannot reasonably be counted on to supply, 
has its place in notes, yet it is not forgotten that the notes exist 
for the sake of the literature, not the literature for the sake of 
the notes. Parents and librarians will appreciate the reading 
lists of books attractive to children, either by the author of the 
classic in hand or along the same lines of interest. Certain 
teachers, crowded and wearied with a variety of tasks, will 
welcome the section of suggestions. 

We have ventured to associate this series with the memory 

of the sweetest and most childlike spirit in English song, 

hoping that little pilgrims of to-day, journeying by April ways, 

may find as much cheer in gentle stories as did the poet of the 

Canterbury Tales. 

Katharine Lee Bates. 

V/ellesley College. 




T7I7\i>Ktf7IsT 



THETABLEOF 
CONTENTS 



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PAGE 

Introduction to the Series 5 

A List of Illustrations 8 

Canto First The Chase n 

Canto Second The Island 37 

Canto Third The Gathering 67 

Canto Fourth The Prophecy 94 

Canto Fifth The Combat 122 

Canto Sixth The Guard-Room 153 

Historical Introduction 184 

A Biographical Sketch 191 

Notes 209 

Suggestions to Teachers 249 



[?[ 




»»■ 



A LIST OF 
ILLUSTRATIONS R g 




PAGE 

Sir Walter Scott Frontispiece 

Map . jo' 

The Stuart Plaid v 

The Douglas Plaid , 

The Mac Alpine Plaid 

The Graham Plaid . . . . .v 

A Highland Piper Facing page 1 1 w 

The Brigg of Turk Facing page 14- 

Pass of the Trosachs and Benvenue . . Facing page 1 6 v 

The Silver Strand, Loch Katrine . . . Facing page 22 

Ellen's Isle . Facing page 28 

Loch Katrine from above the Bier . . . Facing page 37 

Upper Falls of Bracklinn . . . . . Facing page 46 

Cottage of Glenfinlas Facing page 56 

Loch Con Facing page 67 

In the Pass of the Trosachs, looking to 

Beala-nam-bo Facing page 74 

Duncraggan Huts, Trosachs .... Facing page 78^ 

Goblin Cave Facing page 88 '<* 

Doune Castle and Bridge Facing page 94- 

Pass of the Trosachs. ' ' Where twines the path. ' 'Facing page 108 

Pass of the Trosachs and Ben-an . . . Facing page no v 

Collander Bridge and Benledi .... Facing page 122 

Loch Vennachar, Perthshire .... Facing page 132" 

Loch Katrine from the B.row of Benvenue . Facing page 153^ 

Loch Achray and Benvenue .... Facing page 164- 

C8J 



^~T^HE first of the Royal Stuarts was a Norman. 

j Alan of Oswestry emigrated from England 

-** to Scotland early in the Twelfth Century 
and at once became more Scottish than the Scots. 
The family served Scotland, with great distinction 
for two hundred years, and took name from the 
office of High Steward of Scotland, made hereditary 
in it by Malcolm IV, until in 1371, when the seventh 
Lord Steward, whose mother was the daughter of King 
Robert I, ''the Bruce," became Robert II, the first of 
the Stuart kings. Cardinal York, who died in 18 oj, 
was the last male in the direct line of the Royal Stuarts. 

Each Scottish clan long ago adopted and wore one 
certain pattern only of tartan or plaid, which was 
called by the common clan name. It became a "clan 
uniform," born of family pride and powerful to 
intensify and prolong the pride that gave it birth. 

The Stuart plaid is probably the most brilliant and 
striking of the clan patterns, as if intended to reflect 
the exceptional depth and intensity of the Scottish 
feeling of the family. 




The Stuart Plaid 



FOR the world at large there is probably no 
Scottish family, barring the Stuart, more 
generally known than the Douglas. The 
family history reaches back to about the close of the 
twelfth century, and for two hundred years thereafter. 
Scottish history abounds in mention of the Doug- 
lases. Near the end of the fourteenth century, the 
direct male line became extinct, and the succession had 
to go around through an aunt of the last Earl, who had 
not married with such a contingency in view. 

There are still plenty of Douglases, but since the 
failure of the direct succession the name has not been 
as conspicuous in Scottish history as in the days 
when the family joined Wallace in his almost hope- 
less struggle, held high command under Bruce, and 
even disputed the crown with the first of the Stuart 
kings. 

The plaid is among the simpler patterns, made up 
of but three colors, none displaying any very showy 
quality. 




The Douglas Plaid 



THE Mac Alpine clan has claimed to be the 
oldest in Scotland, descendants from the same 
people who furnished the kings of Scotland 
for a thousand years before the accession of the 
Stuarts nearly nine hundred years ago. 

Its history is certainly involved in obscurity, and 
that usually means antiquity. As described by some 
it seems more than a clan, and rather a federation of 
half a dozen or more clans, headed, apparently, by the 
MacGregors. Some deny to the others of these clans 
any Alpine kinship. But it is certain that the Mac- 
Alpine is a very old clan, and that much of its history 
is deeply tragic. 

The plaid is curiously characteristic. Its narrow 
bright lines emphasize it to the near observer, but must 
soon blend with the more sober colors with increasing 
distance. 



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The Mac Alpine Plaid 



THE first record of the clan Graham in Scot- 
land was in 1143, not far from the time 
when the first ancestor of the Stuarts mi- 
grated from England. From that time the Grahams, 
— or Graemes, — have been men in conspicuous 
position and often men of distinction. Two of 
them, James "The Great Montrose," as he was 
called, and John Graham of Claverhouse, whom the 
Covenanters called "the bloody Claverse," were both 
men of supreme distinction in Scottish history. 

The family is remarkable not only for mental 
force but for extraordinary vitality of body. For 
more than eight hundred years the direct line of 
descent has never once failed. 

The clan plaid is a very beautifid one, curiously 
adapted to escaping a distant eye by blending with the 
usual background among the Scottish l.ills. 



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II 



The Graham Plaid 



The scene of The Lady of the Lake is laid 
chiefly in the Highlands of Perthshire in the 
vicinity of Loch Katrine. This locality is 
carefully and accurately delineated in the 
accompanying map. The time involved in 
the narration is six days, each of the six 
cantos of the poem recording the events of a 
single day. As the reading of the poem 
progresses, if the pupil is led constantly 
to refer to the map, he will receive and retain 
a much more vivid and lasting impression 
of Scott's work. 




Highland Piper 



THE LADY OF THE LAKE 



CANTO FIRST 

Harp of the North ! that mouldering long hast hung 

On the witch-elm that shades Saint Fillan's spring, 
And down the fitful breeze thy numbers flung, 

Till envious ivy did around thee cling, 
Muffling with verdant ringlet every string, — 

O Minstrel Harp, still must thine accents sleep? 
'Mid rustling leaves and fountains murmuring, 

Still must thy sweeter sounds their silence keep, 
Nor bid a warrior smile, nor teach a maid to weep? 

Not thus, in ancient days of Caledon, 

Was thy voice mute amid the festal crowd, 
When lay of hopeless love, or glory won, 

Aroused the fearful, or subdued the proud. 
At each according pause was heard aloud 

Thine ardent symphony sublime and high! 
Fair dames and crested chiefs attention bowed; 

For still the burden of thy minstrelsy 
Was Knighthood's dauntless deed, and Beauty's 
matchless eye 

O, wake once more! how rude soe'er the hand 
That ventures o'er thy magic maze to stray; 

[in 



12 The Lady of the Lake [canto i] 

O, wake once more! though scarce my skill command 
Some feeble echoing of thine earlier lay : 

Though harsh and faint, and soon to die away, 
And all unworthy of thy nobler strain, 
25 Yet if one heart throb higher at its sway, 

The wizard note has not been touched in vain. 

Then silent be no more! Enchantress, wake again! 



The stag at eve had drunk his fill, 

Where danced the moon on Monan's rill, 

And deep his midnight lair had made 

In lone Glenartney's hazel shade; 

But when the sun his beacon red 

Had kindled on Benvoirlich's head, 

The deep-mouthed bloodhound's heavy bay 

Resounded up the rocky way, 

And faint, from farther distance borne, 

Were heard the clanging hoof and horn. 

ii 

As Chief, who hears his warder call, 
'To arms! the foemen storm the wall," 
The antlered monarch of the waste 
Sprung from his heathery couch in haste 
But ere his fleet career he took, 
The dewdrops from his flanks he shook ; 
Like crested leader proud and high 
Tossed his beamed frontlet to the sky ; 
A moment gazed adown the dale, 
A moment snuffed the tainted gale, 



[canto i] The Chase 13 

A moment listened to the cry, 

That thickened as the chase drew nigh ; 

Then, as the headmost foes appeared, §0 

With one brave bound the copse he cleared, 

And, stretching forward free and far, 

Sought the wild heaths of Uam-Var. 

in 
Yelled on the view the opening pack ; 
Rock, glen, and cavern, paid them back ; 55 

To many a mingled sound at once 
The awakened mountain gave response. 
A hundred dogs bayed deep and strong, 
Clattered a hundred steeds along, 
Their peal the merry horns rung out, eo 

A hundred voices joined the shout; 
With hark and whoop and wild halloo, 
No rest Benvoirlich's echoes knew. 
Far from the tumult fled the roe-, 
- Close in her covert cowered the doe, 65 

The falcon, from her cairn on high, 
Cast on the rout a wondering eye, 
Till far beyond her piercing ken 
The hurricane had swept the glen. 
Faint, and more faint, its failing din 70 

Returned from cavern, cliff, and linn, 
And silence settled, wide and still, 
On the lone wood and mighty hill. 

IV 

Less loud the sounds of sylvan war 

Disturbed the heights of Uam-Var, 75 

And roused the cavern, where, 'tis told, 



14 The Lady of the Lake [canto iI 

A giant made his den of old ; 

For ere that steep ascent was won, 

High in his pathway hung the sun, 
so And many a gallant, stayed perforce, 

Was fain to breathe his faltering horse, 

And of the trackers of the deer 

Scarce half the lessening pack was near; 

So shrewdly on the mountain side 
ss Had the bold burst their mettle tried. 

v 
The noble stag was pausing now 
Upon the mountain's southern brow, 
Where broad extended, far beneath, 
The varied realms of fair Menteith. 

90 With anxious eye he wandered o'er 

Mountain and meadow, moss and moor, 
And pondered refuge from his toil, 
By far Lochard or Aberfoyle. 
But nearer was the copsewood gray 

95 That waved and wept on Loch Achray, 

And mingled with the pine trees blue 
On the bold cliffs of Benvenue. 
Fresh vigor with the hope returned, 
With flying foot the heath he spurned, 

ioo Held westward with unwearied race, 

And left behind the panting chase. 

VI 

'Twere long to tell what steeds gave o'er, 
As swept the hunt through Cambusmore; 
What reins were tightened in despair, 
xo5 When rose Benledi's ridge in air; 













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[canto i] The Chase ij 

Who flagged upon Bochastle's heath, 

Who shunned to stem the flooded Teith, — 

For twice that day, from shore to shore, 

The gallant stag swam stoutly o'er. 

Few were the stragglers, following far, no 

That reached the lake of Vennachar ; 

And when the Brigg of Turk was won, 

The headmost horseman rode alone. 

VII 

Alone, but with unbated zeal, 

That horseman plied the scourge and steel; 115 

For jaded now, and spent with toil, 

Embossed with foam, and dark with soil, 

While every gasp with sobs he drew, 

The laboring stag strained full in view. 

Two dogs of black Saint Hubert's breed, 120 

Unmatched for courage, breath, and speed, 

Fast on his flying traces came, 

And all but won that desperate game ; 

For, scarce a spear's length from his haunch, 

Vindictive toiled the bloodhounds stanch ; 125 

Nor nearer might the dogs attain, 

Nor farther might the quarry strain. 

Thus up the margin of the lake, 

Between the precipice and brake, 

O'er stock and rock their race they take. 130 

VIII 

The Hunter marked that mountain high, 
The lone lake's western boundary, 
And deemed the stag must turn to bay, 
Where that huge rampart barred the way ; 



1 6 The Lady of the Lake I canto i] 

135 Already glorying in the prize, 

Measured his antlers with his eyes; 
For the death-wound and death-halloo 
Mustered his breath, his whinyard drew: — 
But thundering as he came prepared, 

140 With ready arm and weapon bared, 

The wily quarry shunned the shock, 
And turned him from the opposing rock ; 
Then, dashing down a darksome glen, 
Soon lost to hound and Hunter's ken, 

145 In the deep Trosachs' wildest nook 

His solitary refuge took. 
There, while close couched, the thicket shed 
Cold dews and wild -flowers on his head, 
He heard the baffled dogs in vain 

iso Rave through the hollow pass amain, 

Chiding the rocks that yelled again. 

IX 

Close on the hounds the hunter came, 
To cheer them on the vanished game ; 
But, stumbling in the rugged dell, 

155 The gallant horse exhausted fell. 

The impatient rider strove in vain 
To rouse him with the spur and rein, 
For the good steed, his labors o'er, 
Stretched his stiff limbs, to rise no more; 

ieo Then, touched with pity and remorse, 

He sorrowed o'er the expiring horse. 
"I little thought, when first thy rein 
I slacked upon the banks of Seine, 
That Highland eagle e'er should feed 



|canto i] The Chase 17 

On thy fleet limbs, my matchless steed! 1 

Woe worth the chase, woe worth the day, 
That cost thy life, my gallant gray!" 



Then through the dell his horn resounds, 

From vain pursuit to call the hounds. 

Back limped, w l 'th slow and crippled pace, 170 

The sulky leaders of the chase ; 

Close to their master's side they pressed, 

With drooping tail and humbled crest ; 

But still the dingle's hollow throat 

Prolonged the swelling bugle-note. 175 

The owlets started from their dream, 

The eagles answered with their scream, 

Round and around the sounds were cast, 

Till echo seemed an answering blast ; 

And on the Hunter hied his way, iso 

To join some comrades of the day, 

Yet often paused, so strange the road, 

So wondrous were the scenes it showed. 

XI 

The western waves of ebbing day 

Rolled o'er the glen their level way; 185 

Each purple peak, each flinty spire, 

Was bathed in floods of living fire. 

But not a setting beam could glow 

Within the dark ravines below, 

Where twined the path in shadow hid, 190 

Round many a rocky pyramid, 

Shooting abruptly from the dell 

Its thunder-splintered pinnacle; 



t8 The Lady of the Lake [canto i] 

Round many an insulated mass, 

195 The native bulwarks of the pass, 

Huge as the tower which builders vain 
Presumptuous piled on Shinar's plain. 
The rocky summits, split and rent, 
Formed turret, dome, or battlement, 

200 Or seemed fantastically set 

With cupola or minaret, 
Wild crests as pagod ever decked, 
Or mosque of Eastern architect. 
Nor were these earth-born castles bare, 

205 Nor lacked they many a banner fair; 

For, from their shivered brows displayed, 
Far o'er the unfathomable glade, 
All twinkling with the dewdrop sheen, 
The brier-rose fell in streamers green, 

210 And creeping shrubs of thousand dyes 

Waved in the west -wind's summer sighs. 

XII 

Boon nature scattered, free and wild, 
Each plant or flower, the mountain's child. 
Here eglantine embalmed the air, 

215 Hawthorn and hazel mingled there; 

The primrose pale and violet flower 
Found in each clift a narrow bower ; 
Foxglove and nightshade, side by side, 
Emblems of punishment and pride, 

220 Grouped their dark hues with every stain 

The weather-beaten crags retain. 
With boughs that quaked at every breath, 
Gray birch and aspen wept beneath ; 



fcANTo i] The Chase ig 

Aloft, the ash and warrior oak 

Cast anchor in the rifted rock ; 225 

And, higher yet, the pine tree hung 

His shattered trunk, and frequent flung, 

Where seemed the cliffs to meet on high 

His boughs athwart the narrowed sky. 

Highest of all, where white peaks glanced, 2.30 

Where glistening streamers waved and danced, 

The wanderer's eye could barely view 

The slimmer heaven's delicious blue; 

So wondrous wild, the whole might seem 

The scenery of a fairy dream. 235 

XIII 

Onward, amid the copse 'gan peep 

A narrow inlet, still and deep, 

Affording scarce such breadth of brim, 

As served the wild duck's brood to swim. 

Lost for a space, through thickets veering, 240 

But broader when again appearing, 

Tall rocks and tufted knolls their face 

Could on the dark-blue mirror trace * 

And farther as the Hunter strayed, 

Still broader sweep its channels made. 245 

The shaggy mounds no longer stood, 

Emerging from entangled wood, 

But, wave-encircled, seemed to float, 

Like castle girdled with its moat ; 

Yet broader floods extending still 250 

Divide them from their parent hill, 

Till each, retiring, claims to be 

An islet in an inland sea. 



20 The Lady of the Lake [canto i] 

xiv 

And now, to issue from the glen, 
255 No pathway meets the wanderer's ken, 

Unless he climb with footing nice 

A far projecting precipice. 

The broom's tough roots his ladder made, 

The hazel saplings lent their aid ; 
260 And thus an airy point he won, 

Where, gleaming with the setting sun, 

One burnished sheet of living gold, 

Loch Katrine lay beneath him rolled, 

In all her length far winding lay, 
265 With promontory, creek, and bay, 

And islands that, empurpled bright, 

Floated amid the livelier light, 

And mountains that like giants stand 

To sentinel enchanted land. 
270 High on the south, huge Benvenue 

Down to the lake in masses threw 

Crags, knolls, and mounds, confusedly hurled, 

The fragments of an earlier world ; 

A wildering forest feathered o'er 
275 His ruined sides and summit hoar, 

While on the north, through middle air, 

Ben-an heaved high his forehead bare. 

xv 

From the steep promontory gazed 
The Stranger, raptured and amazed, 
280 And, "What a scene were here," he cried, 

"For princely pomp, or churchman's pride! 
On this bold brow, a lordly tower, 



[canto i] The Chase 21 

In that soft vale, a lady's bower; 

On yonder meadow far away, 

The turrets of a cloister gray; 285 

How blithely might the bugle-horn 

Chide on the lake the lingering morn ! 

How sweet at eve the lover's lute 

Chime when the groves were still and mute ! 

And when the midnight moon should lave 290 

Her forehead in the silver wave, 

How solemn on the ear would come 

The holy matins' distant hum, 

While the deep peal's commanding tone 

Should wake, in yonder islet lone, 295 

A sainted hermit from his cell, 

To drop a bead with every knell ! 

And bugle, lute, and bell, and all, 

Should each bewildered stranger call 

To friendly feast and lighted hall. 300 

XVI 

"Blithe were it then to wander here ! 

But now, — beshrew yon nimble deer, — 

Like that same hermit's, thin and spare, 

The copse must give my evening fare ; 

Some mossy bank my couch must be, 305 

Some rustling oak my canopy. 

Yet pass we that ; the war and chase 

Give little choice of resting-place ; — 

A summer night in greenwood spent 

Were but to-morrow's merriment: 310 

But hosts may in these wilds abound, 

Such as are better missed than found; 



22 The Lady of the Lake [canto i] 

To meet with Highland plunderers here, 
Were worse than loss of steed or deer. — 
315 I am alone ; — my bugle strain 

May call some straggler of the train ; 
Or, fall the worst that may betide, 
Ere now this falchion has been tried.' 

XVII 

But scarce again his horn he wound, 
320 When lo! forth starting at the sound, 

From underneath an aged oak 

That slanted from the islet rock, 

A damsel guider of its way, 

A little skiff shot to the bay, 
325 That round the promontory steep 

Led its deep line in graceful sweep, 

Eddying, in almost viewless wave, 

The weeping willow twig to lave, 

And kiss, with whispering sound and slow, 
330 The beach of pebbles bright as snow. 

The boat had touched this silver strand 

Just as the Hunter left his stand, 

And stood concealed amid the brake, 

To view this Lady of the Lake. 
335 The maiden paused, as if again 

She thought to catch the distant strain. 

With head upraised, and look intent, 

And eye and ear attentive bent, 

And locks flung back, and lips apart, 
340 Like monument of Grecian art, 

In listening mood, she seemed to stand, 

The guardian Naiad of the strand. 



[canto i] The Chase 23 

XVIII 

And ne'er did Grecian chisel trace 

A Nymph, a Naiad, or a Grace, 

Of finer form, or lovelier face ! 345 

What though the sun, with ardent frown, 

Had slightly tinged her cheek with brown, — 

The sportive toil, which, short and light, 

Had dyed her glowing hue so bright, 

Served too in hastier swell to show 350 

Short glimpses of a breast of snow : 

What though no rule of courtly grace 

To measured mood had trained her pace, — 

A foot more light, a step more true, 

Ne'er from the heath-flower dashed the dew; 355 

E'en the slight harebell raised its head, 

Elastic from her airy tread: 

What though upon her speech there hung 

The accents of the mountain tongue, — 

Those silver sounds, so soft, so dear, 300 

The listener held his breath to hear! 

XIX 

A chieftain's daughter seemed the maid; 

Her satin snood, her silken plaid, 

Her golden brooch, such birth betrayed. 

And seldom was a snood amid 365 

Such wild luxuriant ringlets hid, 

Whose glossy black to shame might bring 

The plumage of the raven's wing; 

And seldom o'er a breast so fair 

Mantled a plaid with modest care, 370 

And never brooch the folds combined 



24 The Lady of the Lake [canto i] 

Above a heart more good and kind. 
Her kindness and her worth to spy, 
You need but gaze on Ellen's eye; 

5 Not Katrine in her mirror blue 

Gives back the shaggy banks more true, 
Than every free-born glance confessed 
The guileless movements of her breast ; 
Whether joy danced in her dark eye, 

o Or woe or pity claimed a sigh, 

Or filial love was glowing there, 
Or meek devotion poured a prayer, 
Or tale of injury called forth 
The indignant spirit of the North. 

5 One only passion unrevealed 

With maiden pride the maid concealed, 
Yet not less purely felt the flame; — 
O need I tell that passion's name? 

xx 

Impatient of the silent horn, 
o Now on the gale her voice was borne : — 

"Father!" she cried; the rocks around 

Loved to prolong the gentle sound. 

A while she paused, no answer came; — 

"Malcolm, was thine the blast?" the name 
5 Less resolutely uttered fell, 

The echoes could not catch the swell. 

"A stranger I," the Huntsman said, 

Advancing from the hazel shade. 

The maid, alarmed, with hasty oar 
o Pushed her light shallop from the shore, 

And when a space was gained between, 



[canto i] The Chase 25 

Closer she drew her bosom's screen; 

So forth the startled swan would swing, 

So turn to prune his ruffled wing. 

Then safe, though fluttered and amazed, 405 

She paused, and on the stranger gazed. 

Not his the form, nor his the eye, 

That youthful maidens wont to fly. 

XXI 

On his bold visage middle age 

Had slightly pressed its signet sage, 410 

Yet had not quenched the open truth 

And fiery vehemence of youth; 

Forward and frolic glee was there, 

The will to do, the soul to dare, 

The sparkling glance, soon blown to fire, 415 

Of hasty love or headlong ire. 

His limbs were cast in manly mould 

For hardy sports or contest bold ; 

And though in peaceful garb arrayed, 

And weaponless except his blade, 420 

His stately mien as well implied 

A high-born heart, a martial pride, 

As if a baron's crest he wore, 

And sheathed in armor trode the shore. 

Slighting the petty need he showed, 425 

He told of his benighted road ; 

His ready speech flowed fair and free, 

In phrase of gentlest courtesy ; 

Yet seemed that tone and gesture bland 

Less used to sue than to command. 430 



26 The Lady of the Lake [canto i] 

xxii 
A white the maid the stranger eyed, 
And, reassured, at length replied, 
That Highland halls were open still 
To wildered wanderers of the hill. 

435 "Nor think you unexpected come 

To yon lone isle, our desert home; 
Before the heath had lost the dew, 
This morn, a couch was pulled for you; 
On yonder mountain's purple head 

440 Have ptarmigan and heath-cock bled, 

And our broad nets have swept the mere, 
To furnish forth your evening cheer/' — 
"Now, by the rood, my lovely maid, 
Your courtesy has erred," he said; 

445 "No right have I to claim, misplaced, 

The welcome of expected guest. 
A wanderer, here by fortune tost, 
My way, my friends, my courser lost, 
I ne'er before, believe me, fair, 

450 Have ever drawn your mountain air, 

Till on this lake's romantic strand 
I found a fay in fairy land!" — 

XXIII 

"I well believe," the maid replied, 

As her light skiff approached the side, — 

455 "I well believe, that ne'er before 

Your foot has trod Loch Katrine's shore ; 
But yet, as far as yesternight, 
Old Allan -bane foretold your plight, — 
A gray-haired sire, whose eye intent 

4go Was on the visioned future bent. 



[canto i] The Chase 27 

He saw your steed, a dappled gray, 

Lie dead beneath the birchen way ; 

Painted exact your form and mien, 

Your hunting suit of Lincoln green, 

That tasselled horn so gaily gilt, 465 

That falchion's crooked blade and hilt, 

That cap with heron plumage trim, 

And yon two hounds so dark and grim. 

He bade that all should ready be 

To grace a guest of fair degree ; 470 

But light I held his prophecy, 

And deemed it was my father's horn 

Whose echoes o'er the lake were borne." 

XXIV 

The stranger smiled: — ' 'Since to your home 

A destined errant-knight I come, 475 

Announced by prophet sooth and old, 

Doomed, doubtless, for achievement bold, 

I'll lightly front each high emprise 

For one kind glance of those bright eyes. 

Permit me first the task to guide 4so 

Your fairy frigate o'er the tide." 

The maid, with smile suppressed and sly, 

The toil unwonted saw him try 

For seldom, sure, if e'er before, 

His noble hand had grasped an oar : 485 

Yet with main strength his strokes he drew, 

And o'er the lake the shallop flew; 

With heads erect and whimpering cry, 

The hounds behind their passage ply. 

Nor frequent does the bright oar break 490 



28 The Lady of the Lake [canto i] 

The darkening mirror of the lake, 
Until the rocky isle they reach, 
And moor their shallop on the beach. 

xxv 
The stranger viewed the shore around; 

495 'T was all so close with copsewood bound 

Nor track nor pathway might declare 
That human foot frequented there, 
Until the mountain-maiden showed 
A clambering unsuspected road, 

500 That winded through the tangled screen, 

And opened on a narrow green, 
Where weeping birch and willow round 
With their long fibres swept the ground. 
Here, for retreat in dangerous hour, 

505 Some chief had framed a rustic bower. 

XXVI 

It was a lodge of ample size, 

But strange of structure and device; 

Of such materials, as around 

The workman's hand had readiest found. 

5ic Lopped of their boughs, their hoar trunks bared, 

And by the hatchet rudely squared, 
To give the walls their destined height, 
The sturdy oak and ash unite; 
While moss and clay and leaves combined 

sis To fence each crevice from the wind. 

The lighter pine trees overhead 
Their slender length for rafters spread, 
And withered heath and rushes dry 
Supplied a russet canopy. 



[canto i] The Chase 29 

Due westward, fronting to the green, 520 

A rural portico was seen, 

Aloft on native pillars borne, 

Of mountain fir with bark unshorn, 

Where Ellen's hand had taught to twine 

The ivy and Idaean vine, 525 

The clematis, the favored flower 

Which boasts the name of virgin-bower, 

And every hardy plant could bear 

Loch Katrine's keen and searching air. 

An instant in this porch she staid, 530 

And gaily to the stranger said: 

"On heaven and on thy lady call, 

And enter the enchanted hall!" 

XXVII 

"My hope, my heaven, my trust must be, 

My gentle guide, in following thee!" — 535 

He crossed the threshold, — and a clang 

Of angry steel that instant rang. 

To his bold brow his spirit rushed, 

But soon for vain alarm he blushed, 

When on the floor he saw displayed, 540 

Cause of the din, a naked blade 

Dropped from the sheath, that careless flung 

Upon a stag's huge antlers swung; 

For all around, the walls to grace, 

Hung trophies of the fight or chase: 545 

A target there, a bugle here, 

A battle-axe, a hunting-spear, 

And broadswords, bows, and arrows store, 

With the tusked trophies of the boar. 



jo The Lady of the Lake [canto i] 

550 Here grins the wolf as when he died, 

And there the wild-cat's brindled hide 
The frontlet of the elk adorns, 
Or mantles o'er the bison's horns; 
Pennons and flags defaced and stained, 

555 That blackening streaks of blood retained, 

And deer skins, dappled, dun and white, 
With otter's fur and seal's unite, 
In rude and uncouth tapestry all, 
To garnish forth the sylvan hall. 

XXVIII 

560 The wondering stranger round him gazed, 

And next the fallen weapon raised : — 
Few were the arms whose sinewy strength 
Sufficed to stretch it forth at length. 
And as the brand he poised and swayed, 

565 "I never knew but one," he said, 

"Whose stalwart arm might brook to wield 
A blade like this in battle-field." 
She sighed, then smiled and took the word: 
"You see the guardian champion's sword; 

570 As light it trembles in his hand 

As in my grasp a hazel wand: 
My sire's tall form might grace the part 
Of Ferragus or Ascabart, 
But in the absent giant's hold 

575 Are women now, and menials old.' 

XXIX 

The mistress of the mansion came, 
Mature of age, a graceful dame, 
Whose easy step and stately port 



[canto i] The Chase - Ji 

Had well become a princely court, 

To whom, though more than kindred knew, 5& 

Young Ellen gave a mother's due. 

Meet welcome to her guest she made, 

And every courteous rite was paid 

That hospitality could claim, 

Though all unasked his birth and name. sss 

Such then the reverence to a guest, 

That fellest foe might join the feast, 

And from his deadliest foeman's door 

Unquestioned turn, the banquet o'er. 

At length his rank the stranger names, 590 

"The Knight of Snowdoun, James Fitz-James; 

Lord of a barren heritage, 

Which his brave sires, from age to age, 

By their good swords had held with toil; 

His sire had fallen in such turmoil, 595 

And he, God wot, was forced to stand 

Oft for his right with blade in hand. 

This morning with Lord Moray's train 

He chased a stalwart stag in vain, 

Outstripped his comrades, missed the deer, eoo 

Lost his good steed, and wandered here." 

XXX 

Fain would the Knight in turn require 

The name and state of Ellen's sire. 

Well showed the elder lady's mien 

That courts and cities she had seen ; eos 

Ellen, though more her looks displayed 

The simple grace of sylvan maid, 

In speech and gesture, form and face, 



J2 The Lady of the Lake [canto i] 

Showed she was come of gentle race. 
o 'T were strange in ruder rank to find 

Such looks, such manners, and such mind. 

Each hint the Knight of Snowdoun gave, 

Dame Margaret heard with silence grave; 

Or Ellen, innocently gay, 
5 Turned all enquiry light away: — 

' 'Weird women we! by dale and down 

We dwell, afar from tower and town. 

We stem the flood, we ride the blast, 

On wandering knights our spells we cast ; 
o While viewless minstrels touch the string, 

Tis thus our charmed rhymes we sing." 

She sung, and still a harp unseen 

Filled up the symphony between. 

XXXI 
SONG 

"Soldier, rest! thy warfare o'er, 
5 Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking; 

Dream of battled fields no more, 

Days of danger, nights of waking. 
In our isle's enchanted hall, 

Hands unseen thy couch are strewing, 
o Fairy strains of music fall, 

Every sense in slumber dewing. 
Soldier, rest! thy warfare o'er, 
Dream of fighting fields no more: 
Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking, 
5 Morn of toil, nor night of waking. 

"No rude sound shall reach thine ear 
Armor's clang, or war-steed champing, 



[canto i] The Chase 33 

Trump nor pibroch summon here 

Mustering clan or squadron tramping. 

Yet the lark's shrill fife may come 640 

At the daybreak from the fallow, 

And the bittern sound his drum, 
Booming from the sedgy shallow. 

Ruder sounds shall none be near, 

Guards nor warders challenge here, 645 

Here's no war-steed's neigh and champing, 

Shouting clans or squadrons stamping." 

XXXII 

She paused, — then, blushing, led the lay, 

To grace the stranger of the day. 

Her mellow notes awhile prolong ko 

The cadence of the flowing song, 

Till to her lips in measured frame 

The minstrel verse spontaneous came. 

SONG CONTINUED 

"Huntsman, rest! thy chase is done; 

While our slumbrous spells assail ye, 055 

Dream not, with the rising sun, 

Bugles here shall sound reveille. 
Sleep ! the deer is in his den ; 

Sleep ! thy hounds are by thee lying ; 
Sleep ! nor dream in yonder glen eeo 

How thy gallant steed lay dying. 
Huntsman, rest! thy chase is done; 
Think not of the rising sun, 
For at dawning to assail ye, 
Here no bugles sound reveille." era 



34 The Lady of the Lake [canto i] 

xxxiii 

The hall was cleared, — the stranger's bed, 

Was there of mountain heather spread, 

Where oft a hundred guests had lain, 

And dreamed their forest sports again. 
67o But vainly did the heath-flower shed 

Its moorland fragrance round his head ; 

Not Ellen's spell had lulled to rest 

The fever of his troubled breast. 

In broken dreams the image rose 
675 Of varied perils, pains, and woes: 

His steed now flounders in the brake, 

Now sinks his barge upon the lake ; 

Now leader of a broken host, 

His standard falls, his honor's lost, 
eso Then, — from my couch may heavenly might 

Chase that worst phantom of the night ! — 

Again returned the scenes of youth, 

Of confident undoubting truth; 

Again his soul he interchanged 
ess With friends whose hearts were long estranged. 

They come, in dim procession led, 

The cold, the faithless, and the deaa; 

As warm each hand, each brow as gay, 

As if they parted yesterday. 
690 And doubt distracts him at the view, — 

O were his senses false or true? 

Dreamed he of death or broken vow, 

Or is it all a vision now, 

xxxiv 
At length, with Ellen in a grove 
695 He seemed to walk and speak of love; 



[canto i] The Chase 35 

She listened with a blush and sigh, 

His suit was warm, his hopes were high. 

He sought her yielded hand to clasp, 

And a cold gauntlet met his grasp: 

The phantom's sex was changed and gone, 7* 

Upon its head a helmet shone; 

Slowly enlarged to giant size, 

With darkened cheek and threatening eyes, 

The grisly visage, stern and hoar, 

To Ellen still a likeness bore. — i\ 

He woke, and, panting with affright, 

Recalled the vision of the night. 

The hearth's decaying brands were red, 

And deep and dusky luster shed, 

Half showing, half concealing, all 7 

The uncouth trophies of the hall. 

Mid those the stranger fixed his eye 

Where that huge falchion hung on high, 

And thoughts on thoughts, a countless throng, 

Rushed, chasing countless thoughts along, 7 

Until, the giddy whirl to cure, 

He rose and sought the moonshine pure. 

xxxv 
The wildrose, eglantine, and broom 
Wasted around their rich perfume; 
The birch-trees wept in fragrant balm; 7 

The aspens slept beneath the calm ; 
The silver light, with quivering glance, 
Played on the water's still expanse, — 
Wild were the heart whose passion's sway 
Could rage beneath the sober ray ! 7 

He felt its calm, that warrior guest 



36 The Lady of the Lake {canto i] 

While thus he communed with his breast: — 
"Why is it, at each turn I trace , 
Some memory of that exiled race? 

730 Can I not mountain-maiden spy, 

But she must bear the Douglas eye? 
Can I not view a Highland brand, 
But it must match the Douglas hand? 
Can I not frame a fevered dream, 

735 But still the Douglas is the theme? 

Ill dream no more, — by manly mind 
Not even in sleep is will resigned. 
My midnight orisons said o'er, 
111 turn to rest, and dream no more." 

740 His midnight orisons he told, 

A prayer with every bead of gold, 
Consigned to heaven his cares and woes, 
And sunk in undisturbed repose, 
Until the heath-cock shrilly crew, 

745 And morning dawned on Benvenue. 



CANTO SECOND 

i 

At morn the black-cock trims his jetty wing, 

Tis morning prompts the linnet's blithest lay, 
All Nature's children feel the matin spring 

Of life reviving, with reviving day ; 
And while yon little bark glides down the bay, 750 

Wafting the stranger on his way again, 
Morn's genial influence roused a minstrel gray, 

And sweetly o'er the lake was heard thy strain, 
Mixed with the sounding harp, O white-haired Allan-bane ! 

11 

SONG 

"Not faster yonder rowers' might 755 

Flings from their oars the spray, 
Not faster yonder rippling bright, 
That tracks the shallop's course in light. 

Melts in the lake away, 
Than men from memory erase 7eo 

The benefits of former days ; 
Then stranger, go! good speed the while, 
Nor think again of the lonely isle. 

"High place to thee in royal court, 

High place in battle line, 765 

Good hawk and hound for sylvan sport ! 

Where beauty sees the brave resort, 
The honored meed be thine 1 
[37] 



j8 The Lady of the Lake [canto ii] 

True be thy sword, thy friend sincere, 
77o Thy lady constant, kind, and dear, 

And lost in love's and friendship's smile 
Be memory of the lonely isle. 

in 

SONG CONTINUED 

"But if beneath yon southern sky 
A plaided stranger roam, 
775 Whose drooping crest and stifled sigh, 

And sunken cheek and heavy eye, 

Pine for his Highland home ; 
Then, warrior, then be thine to show 
The care that soothes a wanderer's woe; 
780 Remember then thy hap ere while, 

A stranger in the lonely isle. 

"Or if on life's uncertain main 

Mishap shall mar thy sail; 
If faithful, wise, and brave in vain, 
785 Woe, want, and exile thou sustain 

Beneath the fickle gale ; 
Waste not a sigh on fortune changed, 
On thankless courts, or friends estranged, 
But come where kindred worth shall smile, 
790 To greet thee in the lonely isle." 

IV 

As died the sounds upon the tide, 
The shallop reached the mainland side, 
And ere his onward way he took, 
The stranger cast a lingering look, 
795 Where easily his eye might reach 



[canto ii] The Island 39 

The Harper on the islet beach, 

Reclined against a blighted tree, 

As wasted, gray, and worn as he. 

To minstrel meditation given, 

His reverend brow was raised to heaven, soo 

As from the rising sun to claim 

A sparkle of inspiring flame. 

His hand, reclined upon the wire, 

Seemed watching the awakening fire; 

So still he sat as those who wait 805 

Till judgment speak the doom of fate; 

So still, as if no breeze might dare 

To lift one lock of hoary hair; 

So still, as life itself were fled 

In the last sound his harp had sped. sio 

v 
Upon a rock with lichens wild, 
Beside him Ellen sat and smiled. — 
Smiled she to see the stately drake 
Lead forth his fleet upon the lake, 
While her vexed spaniel from the beach sis 

Bayed at the prize beyond his reach? 
Yet tell me, then, the maid who knows, 
Why deepened on her cheek the rose? — 
Forgive, forgive, Fidelity! 

Perchance the maiden smiled to see 820 

Yon parting lingerer wave adieu, 
And stop and turn to wave anew; 
And, lovely ladies, ere your ire 
Condemn the heroine of my lyre, 
Show me the fair would scorn to spy 825 

And prize such conquest of her eye! 



40 The Lady of the Lake [canto ii] 

VI 

While yet he loitered on the spot, 
It seemed as Ellen marked him not ; 
But when he turned him to the glade, 

830 One courteous parting sign she made ; 

And after, oft the knight would say, 
That not when prize of festal day 
Was dealt him by the brightest fair 
Who e'er wore jewel in her hair, 

835 So highly did his bosom swell 

As at that simple mute farewell. 
Now with a trusty mountain guide, 
And his dark stag-hounds by his side, 
He parts, — the maid, unconscious still, 

840 Watched him wind slowly round the hill ; 

But when his stately form was hid, 
The guardian in her bosom chid — 
"Thy Malcolm! vain and selfish maid!" 
'Twas thus upbraiding conscience said, — 

845 "Not so had Malcolm idly hung 

On the smooth phrase of Southern tongue ; 
Not so had Malcolm strained his eye 
Another step than thine to spy." — 
"Wake, Allan-bane," aloud she cried, 

850 To the old minstrel by her side, — 

"Arouse thee from thy moody dream! 
I'll give thy harp heroic theme, 
And warm thee with a noble name ; 
Pour forth the glory of the Graeme !" 

ess Scarce from her lip the word had rushed, 

When deep the conscious maiden blushed ; 
For of his clan, in hall and bower, 
Young Malcolm Graeme was held the flower. 






[canto ii] The Island 41 

VII 

The minstrel waked his harp,— three times 

Arose the well-known martial chimes, sec 

And thrice their high heroic pride 

In melancholy murmurs died. 

"Vainly thou bidst, O noble maid," 

Clasping his withered hands, he said, 

1 'Vainly thou bidst me wake the strain, 865 

Though all unwont to bid in vain. 

Alas! than mine a mightier hand 

Has tuned my harp, my strings has spanned! 

I touch the chords of joy, but low 

And mournful answer notes of woe ; s?o 

And the proud march which victors tread 

Sinks in the wailing for the dead. 

O, well for me, if mine alone 

That dirge's deep prophetic tone! 

If, as my tuneful fathers said, 875 

This harp, which erst Saint Modan swayed, 

Can thus its master's fate foretell, 

Then welcome be the minstrel's knell! 

VIII 

"But ah! dear lady, thus it sighed, 

The eve thy sainted mother died ; sso 

And such the sounds which, while I strove 

To wake a lay of war or love, 

Came marring all the festal mirth, 

Appalling me who gave them birth, 

And, disobedient to my call, sss 

Wailed loud through Bothwell's bannered hall, 

Ere Douglases, to ruin driven, 



42 The Lady of the Lake [canto ii] 

Were exiled from their native heaven. — 
! if yet worse mishap and woe 

890 My master's house must undergo, 

Or aught but weal to Ellen fair 
Brood in these accents of despair, 
No future bard, sad Harp! shall fling 
Triumph or rapture from thy string; 

895 One short, one final strain shall flow, 

Fraught with unutterable woe, 
Then shivered shall thy fragments lie, 
Thy master cast him down and die!" 

IX 

Soothing she answered him: ' 'Assuage, 

goo Mine honored friend, the fears of age; 

All melodies to thee are known 
That harp has rung or pipe has blown, 
In Lowland vale or Highland glen, 
From Tweed to Spey — what marvel, then, 

90s At times unbidden notes should rise, 

Confusedly bound in memory's ties, 
Entangling, as they rush along, 
The war-march with the funeral song? — 
Small ground is now for boding fear; 

910 Obscure, but safe, we rest us here. 

My sire, in native virtue great, 
Resigning lordship, lands, and state, 
Not then to fortune more resigned 
Than yonder oak might give the wind ; 

915 The graceful foliage storms may reave, 

The noble stem they cannot grieve. 
For me" — she stooped, and, looking round. 
Plucked a blue harebell from the ground,— 



[canto ii] The Island 43 

"For me, whose memory scarce conveys 

An image of more splendid days, 920 

This little flower that loves the lea 

May well my simple emblem be ; 

It drinks heaven's dew as blithe as rose 

That in the King's own garden grows; 

And when I place it in my hair, 925 

Allan, a bard is bound to swear 

He ne'er saw coronet so fair." 

Then playfully the chaplet wild 

She wreathed in her dark locks, and smiled. 



Her smile, her speech, with winning sway, 930 

Wiled the old Harper's mood away. 

With such a look as hermits throw, 

When angels stoop to soothe their woe, 

He gazed, till fond regret and pride 

Thrilled to a tear, then thus replied : 935 

''Loveliest and best! thou little know'st 

The rank, the honors, thou hast lost! 

0, might I live to see thee grace, 

In Scotland's court, thy birthright place, 

To see my favorite's step advance, 940 

The lightest in the courtly dance. 

The cause of every gallant's sigh, 

And leading star of every eye, 

And theme of every minstrel's art, 

The Lady of the Bleeding Heart!" 945 

XI 

"Fair dreams are these," the maiden cried, — 
Light was her accent, yet she sighed, — 



44 The Lady of the Lake [canto ii] 

"Yet is this mossy rock to me 
Worth splendid chair and canopy; 

950 Nor would my footstep spring more gay 

In courtly dance than blithe strathspey, 
Nor half so pleased mine ear incline 
To royal minstrel's lay as thine. 
And then for suitors proud and high, 

955 To bend before my conquering eye, — 

Thou, flattering bard! thyself wilt say, 
That grim Sir Roderick owns its sway. 
The Saxon scourge, Clan-Alpine's pride, 
The terror of Loch Lomond's side, 

960 Would, at my suit, thou know'st, delay 

A Lennox foray — for a day." — 

XII 

The ancient bard her glee repressed: 

"111 hast thou chosen theme for jest ! 

For who, through all this western wild, 
965 Named Black Sir Roderick e'er, and smiled? 

In Holy-Rood a knight he slew; 

I saw, when back the dirk he drew, 

Courtiers give place before the stride 

Of the undaunted homicide; 
97o And since, though outlawed, hath his hand 

Full sternly kept his mountain land. 

Who else dared give — ah! woe the day, 

That I such hated truth should say! — 

The Douglas, like a stricken deer, 
975 Disowned by every noble peer, 

Even the rude refuge we have here? 

Alas, this wild marauding Chief 



[canto n] The Island 45 

Alone might hazard our relief, 

And now thy maiden charms expand, 

Looks for his guerdon in thy hand ; oso 

Full soon may dispensation sought, 

To back his suit, from Rome be brought. 

Then, though an exile on the hill, 

Thy father, as the Douglas, still 

Be held in reverence and fear ; 985 

And though to Roderick thou'rt so dear 

That thou mightst guide with silken thread, 

Slave of thy will, this chieftain dread, 

Yet, loved maid, thy mirth refrain! 

Thy hand is on a lion's mane." — 990 

XIII 

"Minstrel," the maid replied, and high 

Her father's soul glanced from her eye, 

"My debts to Roderick's house I know: 

All that a mother could bestow 

To Lady Margaret's care I owe, 995 

Since first an orphan in the wild 

She sorrowed o'er her sister's child; 

To her brave chieftain son, from ire 

Of Scotland's king who shrouds my sire, 

A deeper, holier debt is owed; 1000 

And, could I pay it with my blood, 

Allan! Sir Roderick should command 

My blood, my life, — but i\ot my hand. 

Rather will Ellen Douglas dwell 

A votaress in Maronnan's cell; 1005 

Rather through realms beyond the sea, 

Seeking the world's cold charity, 



i 



4$ The Lady of the Lake [canto ii] 

Where ne'er was spoke a Scottish word, 
And ne'er the name of Douglas heard, — 
o An outcast pilgrim will she rove, 

Than wed the man she cannot love. 



XIV 

'Thou shak'st, good friend, thy tresses gray,- 
That pleading look, what can it say 
But what I own? — I grant him brave, 

1015 But wild as Bracklinn's thundering wave; 

And generous, — save vindictive mood 
Or jealous transport chafe his blood : 
I grant him true to friendly band, 
As his claymore is to his hand; 

1020 But O ! that very blade of steel 

More mercy for a foe would feel: 
I grant him liberal, to fling 
Among his clan the wealth they bring, 
When back by lake and glen they wind, 

1025 And in the Lowland leave behind, 

Where once some pleasant hamlet stood, 
A mass of ashes slaked with blood. 
The hand that for my father fought, 
I honor, as his daughter ought ; 

1030 But can I clasp it reeking red 

From peasants slaughtered in their shed? 
No! wildly while his virtues gleam, 
They make his passions darker seem, 
And flash along his spirit high, 

1035 Like lightning o'er the midnight sky. 

While yet a child, — and children know, 
Instinctive taught, the friend and foe, — 



[canto ii] The Island 47 

I shuddered at his brow of gloom, 

His shadowy plaid and sable plume; 

A maiden grown, I ill could bear 1040 

His haughty mien and lordly air: 

But, if thou join'st a suitor's claim, 

In serious mood, to Roderick's name, 

I thrill with anguish! or, if e'er 

A Douglas knew the word, with fear. 1045 

To change such odious theme were best, — 

What think'st thou of our stranger guest?" — 

xv 
"What think I of him? — woe the while 
That brought such wanderer to our isle ! 
Thy father's battle-brand, of yore 1050 

For Tine-man forged by fairy lore, 
What time he leagued, no longer foes, 
His Border spears with Hotspur's bows, 
Did, self-unscabbarded, foreshow 
The footstep of a secret foe. 1055 

If courtly spy hath harbored here, 
What may we for the Douglas fear? 
What for this island, deemed of old 
Clan -Alpine's last and surest hold? 
If neither spy nor foe, I pray 1060 

What yet may jealous Roderick say? — 
Nay, wave not thy disdainful head! 
Bethink thee of the discord dread 
That kindled when at Beltane game 
Thou ledst the dance with Malcolm Graeme ; loes 
Still, though thy sire the peace renewed, 
Smoulders in Roderick's breast the feud : 
Beware! — But hark! what sounds are these? 



48 The Lady of the Lake [canto ii] 

My dull ears catch no faltering breeze, 
o No weeping birch, nor aspens wake, 

Nor breath is dimpling in the lake ; 
Still is the canna's hoary beard, 
Yet, by my minstrel faith, I heard — 
And hark again ! some pipe of war 
5 Sends the bold pibroch from afar." 

XVI 

Far up the lengthened lake were spied 
Four darkening specks upon the tide, 
That, slow enlarging on the view, 
Four manned and masted barges grew, 

o And, bearing downwards from Glengyle, 

Steered full upon the lonely isle; 
The point of Brianchoil they passed, 
And, to the windward as they cast, 
Against the sun they gave to shine 

5 The bold Sir Roderick's bannered Pine. 

Nearer and nearer as they bear, 
Spears, pikes, and axes flash in air. 
Now might you see the tartans brave, 
And plaids and plumage dance and wave : 

d Now see the bonnets sink and rise, 

As his tough oar the rower plies ; 
See, flashing at each sturdy stroke, 
The wave ascending into smoke ; 
See the proud pipers on the bow, 

5 And mark the gaudy streamers flow 

From their loud chanters down, and sweep 
The furrowed bosom of the deep, 
As, rushing through the lake amain, 
They plied the ancient Highland strain. 



[canto n] The Island 49 

XVII 

Ever, as on they bore, more loud 1100 

And louder rung the pibroch proud. 

At first the sounds by distance tame, 

Mellowed along the waters came, 

And, lingering long by cape and bay, 

Wailed every harsher note away, 1105 

Then bursting bolder on the ear, 

The clan's shrill Gathering they could hear, 

Those thrilling sounds that call the might 

Of old Clan -Alpine to the fight. 

Thick beat the rapid notes, as when mo 

The mustering hundreds shake the glen, 

And hurrying at the signal dread, 

The battered earth returns their tread. 

Then prelude light, of livelier tone, 

Expressed their merry marching on, 1115 

Ere peal of closing battle rose, 

With mingled outcry, shrieks, and blows; 

And mimic din of stroke and ward, 

As broadsword upon target jarred; 

And groaning pause, ere yet again, 1120 

Condensed, the battle yelled amain: 

The rapid charge, the rallying shout, 

Retreat borne headlong into rout, 

And bursts of triumph, to declare 

Clan -Alpine's conquest — all were there. 1125 

Nor ended thus the strain, but slow 

Sunk in a moan prolonged and low, 

And changed the conquering clarion swell 

For wild lament o'er those that fell. 



jo The Lady of the Lake [canto ii] 

xviii 

!o The war-pipes ceased, but lake and hill 

Were busy with their echoes still ; 
And, when they slept, a vocal strain 
Bade their hoarse chorus wake again, 
While loud a hundred clansmen raise 

is Their voices in their Chieftain's praise. 

Each boatman, bending to his oar, 
With measured sweep the burden bore, 
In such wild cadence, as the breeze 
Makes through December's leafless trees. 

10 The chorus first could Allan know, 

" Roderick Vich Alpine, ho! iro!" 
And near, and nearer as they rowed, 
Distinct the martial ditty flowed. 

XIX 
BOAT SONG 

Hail to the Chief who in triumph advances! 
is Honored and blessed be the ever-green Pine! 

Long may the tree, in his banner that glances, 
Flourish, the shelter and grace of our line! 
Heaven send it happy dew, 
Earth lend it sap anew, 
>o Gayly to bourgeon, and broadly to grow, 

While every Highland glen 
Sends our shout back again, 
"Roderigh Vich Alpine dhu, ho! ieroe!" 

Ours is no sapling, chance-sown by the fountain, 
35 Blooming at Beltane, in winter to fade; 



[canto n] The Island 51 

When the whirlwind has stripped every leaf on the 
mountain, 
The more shall Clan-Alpine exult in her shade. 
Moored in the rifted rock, 
Proof to the tempest's shock, 
Firmer he roots him the ruder it blow ; neo 

Menteith and Breadalbane, then, 
Echo his praise again, 
"Roderigh Vich Alpine dhu, ho! ieroe!" 

xx 

Proudly our pibroch has thrilled in Glen Fruin, 

And Bannochar's groans to our slogan replied; 1105 
Glen Luss and Ross-dhu, they are smoking in ruin, 
And the best of Loch Lomond lie dead on her side. 

Widow and Saxon maid 

Long shall lament our raid, 
Think of Clan -Alpine with fear and with woe ; 1170 

Lennox and Leven-glen 

Shake w T hen they hear again, 
"Roderigh Vich Alpine dhu, ho! ieroe!" 

Row, vassals, row, for the pride of the Highlands! 

Stretch to your oars for the ever-green Pine ! 1175 

that the rosebud that graces yon islands, 

Were wreathed in a garland around him to twine! 

O that some seedling gem, 

Worthy such noble stem, 
Honored and blessed in their shadow might grow ! nso 

Loud should Clan-Alpine then 

Ring from her deepmost glen, 
"Roderigh Vich Alpine dhu, ho! ieroe!" 



$2 The Lady of the Lake [canto ii] 

xxi 

With all her joyful female band, 

U85 Had Lady Margaret sought the strand. 

Loose on the breeze their tresses flew, 
And high their snowy arms they threw, 
As echoing back with shrill acclaim, 
And chorus wild, the Chieftain's name; 

ii9o While, prompt to please, with mother's art, 

The darling passion of his heart, 
The Dame called Ellen to the strand, 
To greet her kinsman ere he land : 
"Come, loiterer, come! a Douglas thou, 

lias And shun to wreathe a victor's brow?" 

Reluctantly and slow, the maid 
The unwelcome summoning obeyed, 
And, when a distant bugle rung, 
In the mid-path aside she sprung: — 

1200 "List, Allan-bane! From mainland cast 

I hear my father's signal blast. 
Be ours," she cried, "the skiff to guide, 
And waft him from the mountain side." 
Then, like a sunbeam, swift and bright, 

1205 She darted to her shallop light, 

And, eagerly while Roderick scanned, 
For her dear form, his mother's band, 
The islet far behind her lay, 
And she had landed in the bay. 

XXII 

mo Some feelings are to mortals given 

With less of earth in them than heaven ; 
And if there be a human tear 



[canto n] The Island 53 

From passion's dross refined and clear, 

A tear so limpid and so meek 

It would not stain an angel's cheek, 1215 

'T is that which pious fathers shed 

Upon a duteous daughter's head! 

And as the Douglas to his breast 

His darling Ellen closely pressed, 

Such holy drops her tresses steeped, 1220 

Though 't was an hero's eye that weeped. 

Nor while on Ellen's faltering tongue 

Her filial welcomes crowded hung, 

Marked she, that fear — affection's proof — 

Still held a graceful youth aloof; 1225 

No! not till Douglas named his name, 

Although the youth was Malcolm Graeme. 

XXIII 

Allan, with wistful look the while, 

Marked Roderick landing on the isle ; 

His master piteously he eyed, 1230 

Then gazed upon the Chieftain's pride, 

Then dashed with hasty hand away 

From his dimmed eye the gathering spray ; 

And Douglas, as his hand he laid 

On Malcolm's shoulder, kindly said: 1235 

"Canst thou, young friend, no meaning spy 

In my poor follower's glistening eye? 

I'll tell thee: — he recalls the day 

When in my praise he led the lay 

O'er the arched gate of Bothwell proud, 1240 

While many a minstrel answered loud, 

When Percy's Norman pennon, won 



54 The Lady of the Lake [canto ii] 

In bloody field, before me shone, 

And twice ten knights, the least a name 

1245 As mighty as yon Chief may claim, 

Gracing my pomp, behind me came. 
Yet trust me, Malcolm, not so proud 
Was I of all that marshalled crowd, 
Though the waned crescent owned my might, 

1250 And in my train trooped lord and knight, 

Though Blantyre hymned her holiest lays, 
And Bothwell's bards flung back my praise, 
As when this old man's silent tear, 
And this poor maid's affection dear, 

1255 A welcome give more kind and true 

Than aught my better fortunes knew. 
Forgive, my friend, a father's boast — 
O, it out -beggars all I lost!" 

XXIV 

Delightful praise! — like summer rose, 
1260 That brighter in the dew drop glows, 

The bashful maiden's cheek appeared, 
For Douglas spoke, and Malcolm heard. 
The flush of shame-faced joy to hide, 
The hounds, the hawk, her cares divide; 
1265 The loved caresses of the maid 

The dogs with crouch and whimper paid ; 
And, at her whistle, on her hand 
The falcon took his favorite stand, 
Closed his dark wing, relaxed his eye, 
1270 Nor, though unhooded, sought to fly. 

And, trust, while in such guise she stood, 
Like fabled Goddess of the wood, 



[canto n] The Island 55 

That if a father's partial thought 

O'erweighed her worth and beauty aught, 

Well might the lover's judgment fail 1275 

To balance with a juster scale; 

For with each secret glance he stole, 

The fond enthusiast sent his soul. 

xxv 

Of stature fair, and slender frame, 

But firmly knit, was Malcolm Graeme. 1280 

The belted plaid and tartan hose 

Did ne'er more graceful limbs disclose; 

His flaxen hair, of sunny hue, 

Curled closely round his bonnet blue. 

Trained to the chase, his eagle eye 1285 

The ptarmigan in snow could spy ; 

Each pass, by mountain, lake, and heath, 

He knew, through Lennox and Menteith ; 

Vain was the bound of dark-brown doe, 

When Malcolm bent his sounding bow, 1290 

And scarce that doe, though winged with fear, 

Outstripped in speed the mountaineer: 

Right up Ben Lomond could he press, 

And not a sob his toil confess. 

His form accorded with a mind 1295 

Lively and ardent, frank and kind; 

A blither heart, till Ellen came, 

Did never love nor sorrow tame; 

It danced as lightsome in his breast 

As played the feather on his crest. 1300 

Yet friends, who nearest knew the youth, 

His scorn of wrong, his zeal for truth, 



fj6 The Lady of the Lake [canto ii] 

And bards, who saw his features bold 
When kindled by the tales of old, 
i30o Said, were that youth to manhood grown, 

Not long should Rhoderick Dhu's renown 
Be foremost voiced by mountain fame, 
But quail to that of Malcolm Graeme. 

XXVI 

Now back they wend their watery way, 
mo And, "O my sire!" did Ellen say, 

"Why urge thy chase so far astray? 

And why so late returned? And why" — 

The rest was in her speaking eye. 

"My child, the chase I follow far, 
1315 'Tis mimicry of noble war; 

And with that gallant pastime reft 

Were all of Douglas I have left. 

I met young Malcolm as I strayed 

Far eastward, in Glenfinlas' shade; 
1320 Nor strayed I safe, for all around 

Hunters and horsemen scoured the ground. 

This youth, though still a royal ward, 

Risked life and land to be my guard, 

And through the passes of the wood 
1325 Guided my steps, not unpursued; 

And Roderick shall his welcome make, 

Despite old spleen, for Douglas' sake. 

Then must he seek Strath-Endrick glen, 

Nor peril aught for me again." 

XXVII 

1330 Sir Roderick, who to meet them came, 

Reddened at sight of Malcolm Graeme, 



[canto n] The Island 57 

Yet, not in action, word, or eye, 

Failed aught in hospitality. 

In talk and sport they whiled away 

The morning of that summer day; 1335 

But at high noon a courier light 

Held secret parley with the knight, 

Whose moody aspect soon declared 

That evil were the news he heard. 

Deep thought seemed toiling in his head ; 1340 

Yet was the evening banquet made 

Ere he assembled round the flame 

His mother, Douglas, and the Graeme, 

And Ellen,, too; then cast around 

His eyes, then fixed them on the ground, 1345 

As studying phrase that might avail 

Best to convey unpleasant tale. 

Long with his dagger's hilt he played, 

Then raised his haughty brow, and said: — 

XXVIII 

"Short be my speech: — nor time affords, 1350 

Nor my plain temper, glozing words. 

Kinsman and father, — if such name 

Douglas vouchsafe to Roderick's claim; 

Mine honored mother; — Ellen — why, 

My cousin, turn away thine eye? — 1355 

And Graeme, in whom I hope to know 

Full soon a noble friend or foe, 

When age shall give thee thy command, 

And leading in thy native land, — 

List all! — The King's vindictive pride 1360 

Boasts to have tamed the Border-side, 



j8 The Lady of the Lake [canto ii] 

Where chiefs, with hound and hawk who came 
To share their monarch's sylvan game, 
Themselves in bloody toils were snared, 

1365 And when the banquet they prepared, 

And wide their loyal portals flung, 
O'er their own gateway struggling hung. 
Loud cries their blood from Meggatt's mead, 
From Yarrow braes and banks of Tweed, 

mo Where the lone streams of Ettrick glide, 

And from the silver Teviot's side; 
The dales, where martial clans did ride, 
Are now one sheep-walk, waste and wide. 
This tyrant of the Scottish throne, 

1375 So faithless and so ruthless known, 

Now hither comes; his end the same, 
The same pretext of sylvan game. 
What grace for Highland Chiefs, judge ye 
By fate of Border chivalry. 

i3so Yet more; amid Glenfinlas' green, 

Douglas, thy stately form was seen. 
This by espial sure I know ; 
Your counsel in the streight I show." 

XXIX 

Ellen and Margaret fearfully 
1385 Sought comfort in each other's eye. 

Then turned their ghastly look, each one, 

This to her sire, that to her son. 

The hasty color went and came 

In the bold cheek of Malcolm Graeme, 
i39o But from his glance it well appeared 

'T was but for Ellen that he feared ; 



[canto ii] The Island 59 

While, sorrowful, but undismayed, 

The Douglas thus his counsel said: 

" Brave Roderick, though the tempest roar, 

It may but thunder and pass o'er; 13*5 

Nor will I here remain an hour, 

To draw the lightning on thy bower; 

For well thou know'st, at this gray head, 

The royal bolt were fiercest sped. 

For thee, who, at thy King's command, moo 

Canst aid him with a gallant band, 

Submission, homage, humbled pride, 

Shall turn the Monarch's wrath aside. 

Poor remnants of the Bleeding Heart, 

Ellen and I will seek apart mos 

The refuge of some forest cell, 

There, like the hunted quarry, dwell, 

Till on the mountain and the moor 

The stern pursuit be passed and o'er." 

XXX 

"No, by mine honor," Roderick said, 1410 

"So help me Heaven, and my good blade! 

No, never! Blasted be yon Pine, 

My father's ancient crest and mine, 

If from its shade in danger part 

The lineage of the Bleeding Heart! 1415 

Hear my blunt speech : grant me this maid 

To wife, thy counsel to mine aid ; 

To Douglas, leagued with Roderick Dhu, 

Will friends and allies flock enow; 

Like cause of doubt, distrust, and grief, 1420 

Will bind us to each Western Chief. 



60 The Lady of the Lake [canto ii] 

When the loud pipes my bridal tell, 
The Links of Forth shall hear the knell, 
The guards shall start in Stirling's porch; 

1425 And when I light the nuptial torch, 

A thousand villages in flames 
Shall scare the slumbers of King James! — 
Nay, Ellen, blench not thus away, 
And, mother, cease these signs, I pray; 

i43o I meant not all my heat might say. — 

Small need of inroad or of fight,' 
When the sage Douglas may unite 
Each mountain clan in friendly band, 
To guard the passes of their land, 

1435 Till the foiled King from pathless glen, 

Shall bootless turn him home again." 

XXXI 

There are who have, at midnight hour, 
In slumber scaled a dizzy tower, 
And, on the verge that beetled o'er 

1440 The ocean tide's incessant roar, 

Dreamed calmly out their dangerous dream, 
Till wakened by the morning beam ; 
When, dazzled by the eastern glow, 
Such startler cast his glance below, 

1445 And saw unmeasured depth around, 

And heard unintermitted sound, 
And thought the battled fence so frail, 
It waved like cobweb in the gale; — 
Amid his senses' giddy wheel, 

1450 Did he not desperate impulse feel, 

Headlong to plunge himself below, 



[canto n] The Island 61 

And meet the worst his fears foreshow? — 

Thus, Ellen, dizzy and astound, 

As sudden ruin yawned around, 

By crossing terrors wildly tossed, 1455 

Still for the Douglas fearing most, 

Could scarce the desperate thought withstand, 

To buy his safety with her hand. 

XXXII 

Such purpose dread could Malcom spy 

In Ellen's quivering lip and eye, \m 

And eager rose to speak, — but ere 

His tongue could hurry forth his fear, 

Had Douglas marked the hectic strife, 

Where death seemed combating with life; 

For to her cheek, in feverish flood, im 

One instant rushed the throbbing blood, 

Then ebbing back, with sudden sway, 

Left its domain as wan as clay. 

" Roderick, enough! enough!" he cried, 

"My daughter cannot be thy bride; 1470 

Not that the blush to wooer dear, 

Nor paleness that of maiden fear. 

It may not be, — forgive her, Chief, 

Nor hazard aught for our relief. 

Against his sovereign, Douglas ne'er 1475 

Will level a rebellious spear. 

'T was I that taught his youthful hand 

To rein a steed and wield a brand; 

I see him yet, the princely boy! 

Not Ellen more my pride and joy; uso 

I love him still, despite my wrongs 



62 The Lady of the Lake [canto ii] 

By hasty wrath and slanderous tongues. 
O, seek the grace you well may find, 
Without a cause to mine combined!" 

xxxm 

1485 Twice through the hall the Chieftain strode; 

The waving of his tartans broad, 
And darkened brow, where wounded pride 
With ire and disappointment vied, 
Seemed, by the torch's gloomy light, 

1490 Like the ill Demon of the night, 

Stooping his pinions' shadowy sway 
Upon the nighted pilgrim's way: 
But, unrequited Love! thy dart 
Plunged deepest its envenomed smart, 

1495 And Roderick, with thine anguish stung, 

At length the hand of Douglas wrung, 
While eyes that mocked at tears before, 
With bitter drops were running o'er. 
The death-pangs of long-cherished hope 

i5oo Scarce in that ample breast had scope, 

But, struggling with his spirit proud, 
Convulsive heaved its checkered shroud, 
While every sob — so mute were all — 
Was heard distinctly through the hall. 

1505 The son's despair, the mother's look, 

111 might the gentle Ellen brook; 
She rose, and to her side there came, 
To aid her parting steps, the Graeme. 

XXXIV 

Then Roderick from the Douglas broke — 
mo As flashes flame through sable smoke, 



[canto n] The Island 63 

Kindling its wreaths, long, dark, and low, 

To one broad blaze of ruddy glow, 

So the deep anguish of despair 

Burst, in fierce jealousy, to air. 

With stalwart grasp his hand he laid 1515 

On Malcolm's breast and belted plaid : 

"Back, beardless boy!" he sternly said, 

"Back, minion! holdst thou thus at naught 

The lesson I so lately taught? 

This roof, the Douglas, and that maid, 1520 

Thank thou for punishment delayed." 

Eager as greyhound on his game, 

Fiercely with Roderick grappled Graeme. 

"Perish my name, if aught afford 

Its Chieftain safety save his sword!" 1525 

Thus as they strove their desperate hand 

Griped to the dagger or the brand, 

And death had been — but Douglas rose, 

And thrust between the struggling foes 

His giant strength: — "Chieftains, forego! 1530 

I hold the first who strikes my foe. — 

Madmen, forbear your frantic jar! 

What! is the Douglas fallen so far, 

His daughter's hand is deemed the spoil 

Of such dishonorable broil?" 1535 

Sullen and slowly they unclasp, 

As struck with shame, their desperate grasp, 

And each upon his rival glared, 

With foot advanced, and blade half bared. 



64 The Lady of the Lake [canto ii] 

xxxv 

1540 Ere yet the brands aloft were flung, 

Margaret on Roderick's mantle hung, 
And Malcolm heard his Ellen's scream, 
As faltered through terrific dream. 
Then Roderick plunged in sheath his sword, 

1545 And veiled his wrath in scornful word : 

"Rest safe till morning; pity 'twere 
Such cheek should feel the midnight air! 
Then mayst thou to James Stuart tell, 
Roderick will keep the lake and fell, 

1550 Nor lackey with his freeborn clan, 

The pageant pomp of earthly man. 
More would he of Clan -Alpine know, 
Thou canst our strength and passes show. — 
Malise, what ho!" — his henchman came: 

1555 "Give our safe-conduct to the Graeme." 

Young Malcolm answered, calm and bold: 
"Fear nothing for thy favorite hold; 
The spot an angel deigned to grace 
Is blessed, though robbers haunt the place. 

1560 Thy churlish courtesy for those 

Reserve, who fear to be thy foes. 
As safe to me the mountain way 
At midnight as in blaze of day, 
Though with his boldest at his back 

1565 Even Roderick Dhu beset the track. — 

Brave Douglas, — lovely Ellen, — nay, 
Naught here of parting will I say. 
Earth does not hold a lonesome glen 
So secret, but we meet again. — 

1570 Chieftain! we too shall find an hour," — 

He said, and left the sylvan bower. 



[canto ii] The Island 65 

xxxvi 

Old Allan followed to the strand — 

Such was the Douglas's command — 

And anxious told, how, on the morn, 

The stern Sir Roderick deep had sworn, 1575 

The Fiery Cross should circle o'er 

Dale, glen, and valley, down and moor. 

Much were the peril to the Graeme 

From those who to the signal came ; 

Far up the lake 't were safest land, 1580 

Himself would row him to the strand. 

He gave his counsel to the wind, 

While Malcolm did, unheeding, bind, 

Round dirk and pouch and broadsword rolled, 

His ample plaid in tightened fold, isss 

And stripped his limbs to such array 

As best might suit the watery way, — 

XXXVII 

Then spoke abrupt: "Farewell to thee, 

Pattern of old fidelity!" 

The Minstrel's hand he kindly pressed, — 1590 

"0, could I point a place of rest! 

My sovereign holds in ward my land, 

My uncle leads my vassal band; 

To tame his foes, his friends to aid, 

Poor Malcolm has but heart and blade. 1595 

Yet, if there be one faithful Graeme 

Who loves the chieftain of his name, 

Not long shall honored Douglas dwell, 

Like hunted stag in mountain cell ; 

Nor, ere yon pride-swollen robber dare, — ieoo 



66 The Lady of the Lake [canto nj 

I may not give the rest to air! 

Tell Roderick Dhu I owed him naught, 

Not the poor service of a boat, 

To waft me to yon mountain-side." 

1605 Then plunged he in the flashing tide. 

Bold o'er the flood his head he bore, 
And stoutly steered him from the shore; 
And Allan strained his anxious eye, 
Far mid the lake his form to spy, 

leio Darkening across each puny wave, 

To which the moon her silver gave. 
Fast as the cormorant could skim, 
The swimmer plied each active limb ; 
Then landing in the moonlight dell, 

wis Loud shouted of his weal to tell. 

The Minstrel heard the far halloo, 
And joyful from the shore withdrew. 



CANTO THIRD 

i 

Time rolls his ceaseless course. The race of yore, 

Who danced our infancy upon their knee, 
And told our marvelling boyhood legends store 1620 

Of their strange ventures happed by land or sea, 
How are they blotted from the things that be ! 

How few, all weak and withered of their force, 
Wait on the verge of dark eternity, 

Like stranded wrecks, the tide returning hoarse, 1625 
To sweep them from our sight ! Time rolls his 
ceaseless course. 

Yet live there still who can remember well, 

How, when a mountain chief his bugle blew, 
Both field and forest, dingle, cliff, and dell, 

And solitary heath, the signal knew; 1630 

And fast the faithful clan around him drew, 

What time the warning note was keenly wound, 
What time aloft their kindred banner flew, 

While clamorous war-pipes yelled the gathering 
sound, 
And while the Fiery Cross glanced, like a meteor, round. 1635 

11 
The Summer dawn's reflected hue 
To purple changed Loch Katrine blue; 
Mildly and soft the western breeze 
Just kissed the lake, just stirred the trees, 

[67] 



68 The Lady of the Lake [canto hi] 

i64o And the pleased lake, like maiden coy, 

Trembled but dimpled not for joy: 
The mountain-shadows on her breast 
Were neither broken nor at rest ; 
In bright uncertainty they lie, 

1645 Like future joys to Fancy's eye. 

The water lily to the light 
Her chalice reared of silver bright; 
The doe awoke, and to the lawn, 
Begemmed with dewdrops, led her fawn ; 

i65o The gray mist left the mountain-side, 

The torrent showed its glistening pride; 

Invisible in necked sky 

The lark sent down her revelry; 

The blackbird and the speckled thrush 

1655 Good-morrow gave from brake and bush ; 

In answer cooed the cushat dove 
Her notes of peace and rest and love. 

in 

No thought of peace, no thought of rest, 
Assuaged the storm in Roderick's breast. 

i66o With sheathed broadsword in his hand, 

Abrupt he paced the islet strand, 
And eyed the rising sun, and laid 
His hand on his impatient blade. 
Beneath a rock, his vassals' care 

lees Was prompt the ritual to prepare, 

With deep and deathful meaning fraught; 
For such Antiquity had taught 
Was preface meet, ere yet abroad 
The Cross of Fire should take its road. 



[canto hi] The Gathering 69 

The shrinking band stood oft aghast 1070 

At the impatient glance he cast; — 

Such glance the mountain eagle threw, 

As, from the cliffs of Ben venue, 

She spread her dark sails on the wind, 

And, high in middle heaven reclined, ie?5 

With her broad shadow on the lake, 

Silenced the warblers of the brake. 

IV 

A heap of withered boughs was piled, 

Of juniper and rowan wild, 

Mingled with shivers from the oak, ieso 

Rent by the lightning's recent stroke. 

Brian the Hermit by it stood, 

Barefooted, in his frock and hood. 

His grizzled beard and matted hair 

Obscured a visage of despair; im 

His naked arms and legs, seamed o'er, 

The scars of frantic penance bore. 

That monk, of savage form and face, 

The impending danger of his race 

Had drawn from deepest solitude, mo 

Far in Benharrow's bosom rude. 

Not his the mien of Christian priest, 

But Druid's, from the grave released, 

Whose hardened heart and eye might brook 

On human sacrifice to look; 16&5 

And much, 'twas said, of heathen lore 

Mixed in the charms he muttered o'er. 

The hallowed creed gave only worse 

And deadlier emphasis of curse. 



70 The Lady of the Lake [canto hi] 

1700 No peasant sought that Hermit's prayer, 

His cave the pilgrim shunned with care ; 
The eager huntsman knew. his bound, 
And in mid chase called off his hound ; 
Or if, in lonely glen or strath, 

1705 The desert-dweller met his path, 

He prayed, and signed the cross between, 
While terror took devotion's mien. 



Of Brian's birth strange tales were told. 
His mother watched a midnight fold, 

mo Built deep within a dreary glen, 

Where scattered lay the bones of men 
In some forgotten battle slain, 
And bleached by drifting wind and rain. 
It might have tamed a warrior's heart 

ni5 To view such mockery of his art! 

The knot-grass fettered there the hand 
Which once could burst an iron band; 
Beneath the broad and ample bone, 
That bucklered heart to fear unknown, 

1720 A feeble and a timorous guest, 

The field-fare framed her lowly nest ; 
There the slow blind-worm left his slime 
On the fleet limbs that mocked at time ; 
And there, too, lay the leader's skull, 

1725 Still wreathed with chaplet, flushed and full, 

For heath-bell with her purple bloom 
Supplied the bonnet and the plume. 
All night, in this sad glen, the maid 
Sat, shrouded in her mantle's shade: 



[canto in] The Gathering 71 

She said no shepherd sought her side, 1730 

No hunter's hand her snood untied, 

Yet ne'er again to braid her hair 

The virgin snood did Alice wear ; 

Gone was her maiden glee and sport, 

Her maiden girdle all too short, 1735 

Nor sought she, from that fatal night, 

Or holy church or blessed rite, 

But locked her secret in her breast, 

And died in travail, unconfessed. 

VI 

Alone, among his young compeers, 1740 

Was Brian from his infant years; 

A moody and heart-broken boy, 

Estranged from sympathy and joy, 

Bearing each taunt which careless tongue 

On his mysterious lineage flung. 1745 

Whole nights he spent by moonlight pale, 

To wood and stream his hap to wail, 

Till, frantic he as truth received 

What of his birth the crowd believed, 

And sought, in mist and meteor fire, 1750 

To meet and know his Phantom Sire! 

In vain, to soothe his wayward fate, 

The cloister oped her pitying gate; 

In vain the learning of the age 

Unclasped the sable-lettered page; 1755 

Even in its treasures he could find 

Food for the fever of his mind. 

Eager he read whatever tells 

Of magic, cabala, and spells, 



J2 The Lady of the Lake [canto hi] 

«6o And every dark pursuit allied 

To curious and presumptuous pride; 
Till with fired brain and nerves o'erstrung, 
And heart with mystic horrors wrung, 
Desperate he sought Benharrow's den, 

1765 And hid him from the haunts of men. 

VII 

The desert gave him visions wild, 
Such as might suit the spectre's child. 
Where with black cliffs the torrents toil, 
He watched the wheeling eddies boil, 

1770 Till, from their foam his dazzled eyes 

Beheld the River Demon rise : 
The mountain mist took form and limb 
Of noontide hag or goblin grim; 
The midnight wind came wild and dread, 

1775 Swelled with the voices of the dead ; 

Far on the future battle-heath 
His eye beheld the ranks of death : 
Thus the lone Seer, from mankind hurled, 
Shaped forth a disembodied world. 

mo One lingering sympathy of mind 

Still bound him to the mortal kind ; 
The only parent he could claim 
Of ancient Alpine's lineage came. 
Late had he heard, in prophet's dream, 

1785 The fatal Ben-Shie's boding scream; 

Sounds, too, had come in midnight blast 
Of charging steeds, careering fast 
Along Benharrow's shingly side, 
Where mortal horseman ne'er might ride; 



[canto in] The Gathering 73 

The thunderbolt had split the pine, — 179a 

All augured ill to Alpine's line. 

He girt his loins, and came to show 

The signals of impending woe, 

And now stood prompt to bless or ban, 

As bade the Chieftain of his clan. 1795 

VIII 

'Twas all prepared ; — and from the rock 

A goat, the patriarch of the flock, 

Before the kindling pile was laid, 

And pierced by Roderick's ready blade. 

Patient the sickening victim eyed isoo 

The life-blood ebb in crimson tide 

Down his clogged beard and shaggy limb, 

Till darkness glazed his eyeballs dim. 

The grisly priest, with murmuring prayer, 

A slender crosslet formed with care, isos 

A cubit's length in measure due; 

The shaft and limbs were rods of yew, 

Whose parents in Inch-Cailliach wave 

Their shadows o'er Clan-Alpine's grave, 

And answering Lomond's breezes deep, mo 

Soothe many a chieftain's endless sleep. 

The Cross thus formed he held on high, 

With wasted hand, and haggard eye, 

And strange and mingled feelings woke, 

While his anathema he spoke : — 1815 

IX 

"Woe to the clansman, who shall view 
This symbol of sepulchral yew, * 
Forgetful that its branches grew 



74 The Lady of the Lake [canto hi] 

Where weep the heavens their holiest dew 

1820 On Alpine's dwelling low! 

Deserter of his Chieftain's trust, 
He ne'er shall mingle with their dust, 
But, from his sires and kindred thrust, 
Each clansman's execration just 

1825 Shall doom him wrath and woe." 

He paused; — the word the vassals took, 
With forward step and fiery look, 
On high their naked brands they shook, 
Their clattering targets wildly strook; 

i83o And first in murmur low, 

Then, like the billow in his course? 
That far to seaward finds his source, 
And flings to shore his mustered force, 
Burst with loud roar their answer hoarse, 

1835 "Woe to the traitor, woe!" 

Ben-an's gray scalp the accents knew, 
The joyous wolf from covert drew, 
The exulting eagle screamed afar, — 
They knew the voice of Alpine's war. 



i84o The shout was hushed on lake and fell, 

The monk resumed his muttered spell : 
Dismal and low its accents came, 
The while he scathed the. Cross with flame; 
And the few words that reached the air, 

1845 Although the holiest name was there, 

Had more of blasphemy than prayer. 
But when he shook above the crowd 
Its kindled points, he spoke aloud : — 



[canto hi] The Gathering 75 

"Woe to the wretch who fails to rear 

At this dread sign the ready spear! isso 

For, as the flames this symbol sear, 

His home, the refuge of his fear, 

A kindred fate shall know ; 
Far o'er its roof the volumed flame 
Clan -Alpine's vengeance shall proclaim, 1355 

While maids and matrons on his name 
Shall call down wretchedness and shame, 

And infamy and woe." 
Then rose the cry of females, shrill 
As goshawk's whistle on the hill, i860 

Denouncing misery and ill, 
Mingled with childhood's babbling trill 

Of curses stammered slow; 
Answering with imprecation dread, 
"Sunk be his home in embers red! wes 

And cursed be the meanest shed 
That e'er shall hide the houseless head 

We doom to want and woe!" 
A sharp and shrieking echo gave, 
Coir-Uriskin, thy goblin cave! 1870 

And the gray pass where birches wave 

On Beala-nam-bo. 

XI 

Then deeper paused the priest anew, 

And hard his laboring breath he drew, 

While, with set teeth and clenched hand, 1875 

And eyes that glowed like fiery brand, 

He meditated curse more dread, 

And deadlier, on the clansman's head 



76 The Lady of the Lake [canto hi] 

Who, summoned to his chieftain's aid, 
i88o The signal saw and disobeyed. 

The crosslet's points of sparkling wood 

He quenched among the bubbling blood, 

And, as again the sign he reared, 

Hollow and hoarse his voice was heard : 
1885 "When flits this Cross from man to man, 

Vich-Alpine's summons to his clan, 

Burst be the ear that fails to heed ! 

Palsied the foot that shuns to speed! 

May ravens tear the careless eyes, 
18% Wolves make the coward heart their prize ! 

As sinks that blood-stream in the earth, 

So may his heart's blood drench his hearth! 

As dies in hissing gore the spark, 

Quench thou his light, Destruction dark! 
1895 And be the grace to him denied, 

Bought by this sign to all beside!" 

He ceased; no echo gave again 

The murmur of the deep Amen. 

XII 

Then Roderick with impatient look 
1900 From Brian's hand the symbol took: 

"Speed, Malise, speed!" he said, and gave 
The crosslet to his henchman brave. 
"The muster-place be Lanrick mead — 
Instant the time — speed, Malise, speed!" 
1903 Like heath-bird, when the hawks pursue, 

A barge across Loch Katrine flew : 
High stood the henchman on the prow ; 
So rapidly the barge-men row, 



[canto in] The Gathering 77 

The bubbles, where they launched the boat, 
Were all unbroken and afloat, 1 

Dancing in foam and ripple still, 
When it had neared the mainland hill; 
And from the silver beach's side 
Still was the prow three fathom wide, 
When lightly bounded to the land 1 

The messenger of blood and brand. 

XIII 

Speed, Malise, speed! the dun deer's hide 

On fleeter foot was never tied. 

Speed, Malise, speed! such cause of haste 

Thine active sinews never braced. 1 

Bend 'gainst the steepy hill thy breast, 

Burst down like torrent from its crest; 

With short and springing footstep pass 

The trembling bog and false morass ; 

Across the brook like roebuck bound, 1 

And thread the brake like questing hound ; 

The crag is high, the scaur is deep, 

Yet shrink not from the desperate leap : 

Parched are thy burning lips and brow, 

Yet by the fountain pause not now ■ u 

Herald of battle, fate, and fear, 

Stretch onward in thy fleet career! 

The wounded hind thou track 'st not now, 

Pursuest not maid through greenwood bough, 

Nor pliest thou now thy flying pace u 

With rivals in the mountain race; 

But danger, death, and warrior deed 

Are in thy course — speed, Malise, speed! 



7<? The Lady of the Lake [canto hi] 

xiv 

Fast as the fatal symbol flies, 
1940 In arms the huts and hamlets rise ; 

From winding glen, from upland brown, 

They poured each hardy tenant down. 

Nor slacked the messenger his pace; 

He showed the sign, he named the place, 
1945 And, pressing forward like the wind, 

Left clamor and surprise behind. 

The fisherman forsook the strand, 

The swarthy smith took dirk and brand ; 

With changed cheer, the mower blithe 
1950 Left in the half -cut swath his scythe ; 

The herds without a keeper strayed, 

The plough was in mid-furrow stayed, 

The falconer tossed his hawk away, 

The hunter left the stag at bay ; 
1955 Prompt at the signal of alarms, 

Each son of Alpine rushed to arms ; 

So swept the tumult and affray 

Along the margin of Achray. 

Alas, thou lovely lake! that e'er 
i960 Thy banks should echo sounds of fear! 

The rocks, the bosky thickets, sleep 

So stilly on thy bosom deep, 

The lark's blithe carol from the cloud, 

Seems for the scene too gaily loud. 

xv 

1970 Speed, Malise, speed! The lake is past, 

Duncraggan's huts appear at last, 
And peep, like moss-grown rocks, half seen, 



[canto hi] The Gathering yg 

Half hidden in the copse so green; 

There mayst thou rest, thy labor done, 

Their lord shall speed the signal on. — 1975 

As stoops the hawk upon his prey, 

The henchman shot him down the way. 

What woeful accents load the gale? 

The funeral yell, the female wail ! 

A gallant hunter's sport is o'er, wso 

A valiant warrior fights no more. 

Who, in the battle or the chase, 

At Roderick's side shall fill his place! — 

Within the hall, where torches' ray 

Supplies the excluded beams of day, wss 

Lies Duncan on his lowly bier, 

And o'er him streams his widow's tear. 

His stripling son stands mournful by, 

His youngest weeps, but knows not why; 

The village maids and matrons round 1990 

The dismal coronach resound. 

XVI 
CORONACH 

He is gone on the mountain. 

He is lost to the forest, 
Like a summer-dried fountain, 

When our need was the sorest. 1995 

The font, reappearing, 

From the raindrops shall borrow, 
But to us comes no cheering, 

To Duncan no morrow! 



80 The Lady of the Lake [canto hi] 

2000 The hand of the reaper 

Takes the ears that are hoary, 
But the voice of the weeper 

Wails manhood in glory. 
The autumn winds rushing 
2005 Waft the leaves that are searest, 

But our flower was in flushing, 
When blighting was nearest. 

Fleet foot on the correi, 
Sage counsel in cumber, 
2010 Red hand in the foray, 

How sound is thy slumber! 

Like the dew on the mountain, 

Like the foam on the river, 

Like the bubble on the fountain 

2015 Thou art gone, and forever! 

XVII 

See Stumah, who, the bier beside, 
His master's corpse with wonder eyed, 
Poor Stumah ! whom his least halloo 
Could send like lightning o'er the dew, 

2020 Bristles his crest, and points his ears, 

As if some stranger step he hears. 
'T is not a mourner's muffled tread, 
Who comes to sorrow o'er the dead, 
But headlong haste, or deadly fear, 

2025 Urge the precipitate career. 

All stand aghast: — unheeding all, 
The henchman bursts into the hall ; 
Before the dead man's bier he stood, 



[canto in] The Gathering 81 

Held forth the Cross besmeared with blood; 
"The muster-place is Lanrick mead; 2030 

Speed forth the signal! clansmen, speed!" 

XVIII 

Angus, the heir of Duncan's line. 

Sprung forth and seized the fatal sign. 

In haste the stripling to his side 

His father's dirk and broadsword tied; 2035 

But when he saw his mother's eye 

Watch him in speechless agony, 

Back to her opened arms he flew, 

Pressed on her lips a fond adieu, — 

"Alas!" she sobbed, — "and yet begone, 2040 

And speed thee forth, like Duncan's son!" 

One look he cast upon the bier, 

Dashed from his eye the gathering tear, 

Breathed deep to clear his laboring breast, 

And tossed aloft his bonnet crest, 2045 

Then, like the high-bred colt when, freed, 

First he essays his fire and speed, 

He vanished, and o'er moor and moss 

Sped forward with the Fiery Cross. 

Suspended was the widow's tear 2050 

While yet his footsteps she could hear; 

And when she marked the henchman's eye 

Wet with unwonted sympathy, 

"Kinsman," she said, "his race is run 

That should have sped thine errand on ; 2055 

The oak has fallen — the sapling bough 

Is all Duncraggan's shelter now. 

Yet trust I well, his duty done, 



82 The Lady of the Lake [canto hi] 

The orphan's God will guard my son. — 
2060 And you, in many a danger true, 

At Duncan's hest your blades that drew, 
To arms, and guard that orphan's head! 
Let babes and women wail the dead." 
Then weapon-clang and martial call 
2065 Resounded through the funeral hall, 

While from the walls the attendant band 
Snatched sword and targe, with hurried hand; 
And short and flitting energy 
Glanced from the mourner's sunken eye, 
2070 As if the sounds to warrior dear 

Might rouse her Duncan from his bier. 
But faded soon that borrowed force; 
Grief claimed his right, and tears their course. 

XIX 

Benledi saw the Cross of Fire, 
2075 It glanced like lightning up Strath-Ire. 

O'er dale and hill the summons flew, 
Nor rest nor pause young Angus knew; 
The tear that gathered in his eye 
He left the mountain breeze to dry; 
2080 Until, where Teith's young waters roll 

Betwixt him and a wooded knoll 
That graced the sable strath with green, 
The chapel of Saint Bride was seen. 
Swoln was the stream, remote the bridge, 
2085 But Angus paused not on the edge; 

Though the dark waves danced dizzily, 
Though reeled his sympathetic eye, 
He dashed amid the torrent's roar: 



[canto hi] The Gathering 83 

His right hand high the crosslet bore, 

His left the pole-axe grasped, to guide 2090 

And stay his footing in the tide. 

He stumbled twice, — the foam splashed high, 

With hoarser swell the stream raced by ; 

And had he fallen — forever there, 

Farewell Duncraggan's orphan heir! 2095 

But still, as if in parting life, 

Firmer he grasped the Cross of strife, 

Until the opposing bank he gained, 

And up the chapel pathway strained. 

xx 

A blithesome rout, that morning-tide, 2100 

Had sought the chapel of Saint Bride. 

Her troth Tombea's Mary gave 

To Norman, heir of Armandave, 

And, issuing from the Gothic arch, 

The bridal now resumed their march. 2105 

In rude but glad procession came 

Bonneted sire, and coif-clad dame; 

And plaided youth, with jest and jeer, 

Which snooded maiden would not hear; 

And children, that, unwitting why, 211c 

Lent the gay shout their shrilly cry; 

And minstrels, that in measures vied 

Before the young and bonny bride, 

Whose downcast eye and cheek disclose 

The tear and blush of morning rose. 2115 

With virgin step, and bashful hand 

She held the kerchief's snowy band. 

The gallant bridegroom by her side 



84 The Lady of the Lake [canto hi] 

Beheld his prize with victor's pride, 
2120 And the glad mother in her ear 

Was closely whispering word of cheer. 

XXI 

Who meets them at the churchyard gate? 

The messenger of fear and fate ! 

Haste in his hurried accent lies, 
2125 And grief is swimming in his eyes. 

All dripping from the recent flood, 

Panting and travel-soiled he stood, 

The fatal sign of fire and sword 

Held forth, and spoke the appointed word: 
2i3o 'The muster-place is Lanrick mead; 

Speed forth the signal! Norman, speed!" 

And must he change so soon the hand 

Just linked to his by holy band, 

For the fell Cross of blood and brand ? 
2i35 And must the day so blithe that rose, 

And promised rapture in the close, 

Before its setting hour, divide 

The bridegroom from the plighted bride? 

O fatal doom ! — it must ! it must ! 
2140 Clan-Alpine's cause, her Chieftain's trust, 

Her summons dread, brook no delay; 

Stretch to the race — away ! away ! 

XXII 

Yet slow he laid his plaid aside, 
And, lingering, eyed his lovely bride, 
2145 Until he saw the starting tear 

Speak woe he might not stop to cheer; 
Then, trusting not a second look, 



[canto hi] The Gathering 85 

In haste he sped him up the brook, 

Nor backward glanced, till on the heath 

Where Lubnaig's lake supplies the Teith. — 2150 

What in the racer's bosom stirred? 

The sickening pang of hope deferred, 

And memory with a torturing train 

Of all his morning visions vain. 

Mingled with love's impatience, came 2155 

The manly thirst for martial fame; 

The stormy joy of mountaineers 

Ere yet they rush upon the spears; 

And zeal for Clan and Chieftain burning, 

And hope, from well-fought field returning, 2160 

With war's red honors on his crest, 

To clasp his Mary to his breast. 

Stung by such thoughts, o'er bank and brae, 

Like fire from flint he glanced away, 

While high resolve, and feeling strong 2105 

Burst into voluntary song. 

XXIII 
SONG 

The heath this night must be my bed, 
The bracken curtain for my head, 
My lullaby the warder's tread, 

Far, far, from love and thee, Mary; 2170 

To-morrow eve, more stilly laid, 
My couch may be my bloody plaid, 
My vesper song thy wail, sweet maid! 

It will not waken me, Mary! 



86 The Lady of the Lake [canto hi] 

2175 I may not, dare not, fancy now 

The grief that clouds thy lovely brow, 
I dare not think upon thy vow, 

And all it promised me, Mary. 
No fond regret must Norman know; 
2180 When bursts Clan-Alpine on the foe, 

His heart must be like bended bow, 
His foot like arrow free, Mary. 

A time will come with feeling fraught, 
For, if I fall in battle fought, 

2185 Thy hapless lover's dying thought, 

Shall be a thought on thee, Mary. 
And if returned from conquered foes, 
How blithely will the evening close, 
How sweet the linnet sing repose, 

2190 To my young bride and me, Mary! 

xxiv 
Not faster o'er thy heathery braes, 
Balquidder, speeds the midnight blaze, 
Rushing in conflagration strong 
Thy deep ravines and dells along, 

2195 Wrapping thy cliffs in purple glow, 

And reddening the dark lakes below; 
Nor faster speeds it, nor so far, 
As o'er thy heaths the voice of war. 
The signal roused to martial coil 

2200 The sullen margin of Loch Voil, 

Waked still Loch Doine, and to the source 
Alarmed, Balvaig, thy swampy course; 
Thence southward turned its rapid road 



[canto hi] The Gathering 87 

Adown Strath-Gartney's valley broad, 

Till rose in arms each man might claim 2205 

A portion in Clan-Alpine's name, 

From the gray sire, whose trembling hand 

Could hardly buckle on his brand, 

To the raw boy, whose shaft and bow 

Were yet scarce terror to the crow. 2210 

Each valley, each sequestered glen, 

Mustered its little horde of men, 

That met as torrents from the height 

In Highland dales their streams unite, 

Still gathering, as they pour along, 2215 

A voice more loud, a tide more strong, 

Till at the rendezvous they stood 

By hundreds prompt for blows and blood, 

Each trained to arms since life began, 

Owning no tie but to his clan, 2220 

No oath, but by his chieftain's hand, 

No law but Roderick Dhu's command. 

xxv 

That summer morn had Roderick Dhu 

Surveyed the skirts of Benvenue, 

And sent his scouts o'er hill and heath, 2225 

To view the frontiers of Menteith. 

All backward came with news of truce; 

Still lay each martial Graeme and Bruce, 

In Rednock courts no horsemen wait, 

No banner waved on Cardross gate, 2230 

On Duchray's towers no beacon shone, 

Nor scared the herons from Loch Con; 

All seemed at peace. — Now wot ye why 



88 The Lady of the Lake [canto hi] 

The Chieftain with such anxious eye, 

2235 Ere to the muster he repair, 

This western frontier scanned with care? — 
In Ben venue's most darksome cleft, 
A fair though cruel, pledge was left; 
For Douglas, to his promise true, 

2240 That morning from the isle withdrew, 

And in a deep sequestered dell 
Had sought a low and lonely cell. 
By many a bard in Celtic tongue 
Has Coir-nan-Uriskin been sung; 

2245 A softer name the Saxons gave, 

And called the grot the Goblin Cave. 

xxvi 

It was a wild and strange retreat, 
As e'er was trod by outlaw's feet. 
The dell, upon the mountain's crest, 

2250 Yawned like a gash on warrior's breast; 

Its trench had stayed full many a rock, 
Hurled by primeval earthquake shock 
From Benvenue's gray summit wild, 
And here, in random ruin piled, 

2255 They frowned incumbent o'er the spot, 

And formed the rugged sylvan grot. 
The oak and birch with mingled shade 
At noontide there a twilight made, 
Unless when short and sudden shone 

2260 Some straggling beam on cliff or stone, 

With such a glimpse as prophet's eye 
Gains on thy depth, Futurity. 
No murmur waked the solemn still, 



{canto hi] The Gathering 8g 

Save tinkling of a fountain rill ; 

But when the wind chafed with the lake, 2260 

A sullen sound would upward break, 

With dashing hollow voice, that spoke 

The incessant war of wave and rock. 

Suspended cliffs with hideous sway 

Seemed nodding o'er the cavern gray. 2270 

From such a den the wolf had sprung, 

In such the wild-cat leaves her young; 

Yet Douglas and his daughter fair 

Sought for a space their safety there. 

Gray Superstition's whisper dread 2275 

Debarred the spot to vulgar tread; 

For there, she said, did fays resort, 

And satyrs hold their sylvan court, 

By moonlight tread their mystic maze, 

And blast the rash beholder's gaze. 2280 

XXVII 

Now eve, with western shadows long, 

Floated on Katrine bright and strong, 

When Roderick with a chosen few 

Repassed the heights of Benvenue. 

Above the Goblin Cave they go, 2280 

Through the wild pass of Beal-nam-bo; 

The prompt retainers speed before, 

To launch the shallop from the shore, 

For 'cross Loch Katrine lies his way 

To view the passes of Achray, 2290 

And place his clansmen in array. 

Yet lags the Chief in musing mind, 

Unwonted sight, his men behind. 



go The Lady of the Lake [canto hi] 

A single page, to bear his sword, 

2295 Alone attended on his lord; 

The rest their way through thickets break, 

And soon await him by the lake. 

It was a fair and gallant sight. 

To view them from the neighboring height, 

2300 By the low -levelled sunbeam's light! 

For strength and stature, from the clan 
Each warrior was a chosen man, 
As even afar might well be seen, 
By their proud step and martial mien. 

2305 Their feathers dance, their tartans float, 

Their targets gleam, as by the boat 
A wild and warlike group they stand, 
That well became such mountain-strand. 

XXVIII 

Their Chief, with step reluctant, still 
2310 Was lingering on the craggy hill, 

Hard by where turned apart the road 
To Douglas's obscure abode. 
It was but with that dawning morn 
That Roderick Dhu had proudly sworn 
23i5 To drown his love in war's wild roar, 

Nor think of Ellen Douglas more; 
But he who stems a stream with sand, 
And fetters flame with flaxen band, 
Has yet a harder task to prove, — 
2320 By firm resolve to conquer love! 

Eve finds the Chief, like restless ghost, 
Still hovering near his treasure lost; 
For though his haughty heart deny 



[canto in] The Gathering 91 

A parting meeting to his eye, 

Still fondly strains his anxious ear 2325 

The accents of her voice to hear, 

And inly did he curse the breeze 

That waked to sound the rustling trees. 

But hark! What mingles in the strain? 

It is the harp of Allan-bane, 2330 

That wakes its measure slow and high, 

Attuned to sacred minstrelsy. 

What melting voice attends the strings? 

Tis Ellen, or an angel, sings. 

XXIX 
HYMN TO THE VIRGIN 

Ave Maria! maiden mild! 2335 

Listen to a maiden's prayer! 
Thou canst hear though from the wild, 

Thou canst save amid despair. 
Safe may we sleep beneath thy care, 

Though banished, outcast, and reviled — 2340 
Maiden! hear a maiden's prayer; 

Mother, hear a suppliant child! 

Ave Maria! 
Ave Maria! undefiled! 

The flinty couch we now must share 2345 

Shall seem with down of eider piled, 

If thy protection hover there. 
The murky cavern's heavy air 

Shall breathe of balm if thou hast smiled ; 
Then, Maiden! hear a maiden's prayer, 2350 

Mother, list a suppliant child! 

Ave Maria! 



92 The Lady of the Lake [canto hi] 

Ave Maria! stainless styled! 

Foul demons of the earth and air, 
2355 From this their wonted haunt exiled, 

Shall flee before thy presence fair. 
We bow us to our lot of care, 

Beneath thy guidance reconciled: 
Hear for a maid a maiden's prayer, 
2360 And for a father hear a child! 

Ave Maria! 

XXX 

Died on the harp the closing hymn, — 
Unmoved in attitude and limb, 
As listening still, Clan-Alpine's lord 

2365 Stood leaning on his heavy sword, 

Until the page with humble sign 
Twice pointed to the sun's decline. 
Then while his plaid he round him cast, 
"It is the last time — 't is the last," 

2370 He muttered thrice, — "the last time e'er 

That angel-voice shall Roderick hear!" 
It was a goading thought — his stride 
Hied hastier down the mountain -side ; 
Sullen he flung him in the boat, 

2375 An instant 'cross the lake it shot. 

They landed in that silvery bay, 
And eastward held their hasty way, 
Till, with the latest beams of light, 
The band arrived on Lanrick height, 

2380 Where mustered in the vale below 

Clan-Alpine's men in martial show. 



[canto in] The Gathering gj 

XXXI 

A various scene the clansmen made: 

Some sat, some stood, some slowly strayed; 

But most, with mantles folded round, 

Were couched to rest upon the ground, 2385 

Scarce to be known by curious eye 

From the deep heather where they lie, 

So well was matched the tartan screen 

With heath-bell dark and brackens green; 

Unless where, here and there, a blade 2390 

Or lance's point a glimmer made, 

Like glow-worm twinkling through the shade. 

But when, advancing through the gloom, 

They saw the Chieftain's eagle plume, 

Their shout of welcome, shrill and wide, 2395 

Shook the steep mountain's steady side. 

Thrice it arose, and lake and fell 

Three times returned the martial yell ; 

It died upon Bochastle's plain, 

And Silence claimed her evening reign. 2400 



CANTO FOURTH 

i 

''The rose is fairest when 't is budding new, 

And hope is brightest when it dawns from fears; 
The rose is sweetest washed with morning dew, 

And love is loveliest when embalmed in tears. 
2405 O wilding rose, whom fancy thus endears, 

I bid your blossoms in my bonnet wave, 
Emblem of hope and love through future years!" 

Thus spoke young Norman, heir of Armandave, 
What time the sun arose on Vennachar's broad wave. 

ii 

2410 Such fond conceit, half said, half sung, 

Love prompted to the bridegroom's tongue. 
All while he stripped the wild-rose spray, 
His axe and bow beside him lay, 
For on a pass 'twixt lake and wood 

2415 A wakeful sentinel he stood. 

Hark! — on the rocks a footstep rung, 
And instant to his arms he sprung. 
"Stand, or thou diest! — What, Malise? — soon 
Art thou returned from Braes of Doune. 

2420 By thy keen step and glance I know, 

Thou bring'st us tidings of the foe." — 

For while the Fiery Cross hied on, 

On distant scout had Malise gone. — 

"Where sleeps the Chief?" the henchman said. 
[94J 



[canto iv] The Prophecy Q$ 

"Apart, in yonder misty glade; 2425 

To his lone couch I'll be your guide." — 

Then called a slumberer by his side, 

And stirred him with his slackened bow, — 

"Up, up, Glentarkini rouse thee, ho! 

We seek the Chieftain; on the track 2430 

Keep eagle watch till I come back." 

in 
Together up the pass they sped : 
"What of the foeman?" Norman said. — 
"Varying reports from near and far; 
This certain, — that a band of war 2435 

Has for two days been ready boune, 
At prompt command, to march from Doune; 
King James the while, with princely powers, 
Holds revelry in Stirling towers. 
Soon will this dark and gathering cloud 2440 

Speak on our glens in thunder loud. 
Inured to bide such bitter bout, 
The warrior's plaid may bear it out; 
But, Norman, how wilt thou provide 
A shelter for thy bonny bride?" — 2445 

"What! know ye not that Roderick's care 
To the lone isle hath caused repair 
Each maid and matron of the clan, 
And every child and aged man 
Unfit for arms; and given his charge, 2450 

Nor skiff nor shallop, boat nor barge, 
Upon these lakes shall float at large, 
But all beside the islet moor, 
That such dear pledge may rest secure?" — 



q6 The Lady of the Lake [canto iv] 

IV 

2455 " T is well advised, — the Chieftain's plan 

Bespeaks the father of his clan. 
But wherefore sleeps Sir Roderick Dhu 
Apart from all his followers true?" 
"It is because last evening-tide 

2460 Brian an augury hath tried, 

Of that dread kind which must not be 
Unless in dread extremity, 
The Taghairm called; by which, afar, 
Our sires foresaw the events of war. 

2465 Duncraggan's milk-white bull they slew," — 

MALISE 

"Ah! well the gallant brute I knew! 
The choicest of the prey we had 
When swept our merrymen Gallangad. 
His hide was snow, his horns were dark, 

2470 His red eye glowed like fiery spark ; 

So fierce, so tameless, and so fleet, 
Sore did he cumber our retreat, 
And kept our stoutest kerns in awe, 
Even at the pass of Beal 'maha. 

2475 But steep and flinty was the road, 

And sharp the hurrying pikeman's goad, 
And when we came to Dennan's Row 
A child might scathless stroke his brow." 

v 

NORMAN 

"That bull was slain; his reeking hide 
2480 They stretched the cataract beside, 

Whose waters their wild tumult toss 



[canto iv] The Prophecy g? 

Adown the black and craggy boss 

Of that huge cliff whose ample verge 

Tradition calls the Hero's Targe. 

Couched on a shelf beneath its brink, 2485 

Close where the thundering torrents sink, 

Rocking beneath their headlong sway, 

And drizzled by the ceaseless spray, 

Midst groan of rock and roar of stream, 

The wizard waits prophetic dream. 2410 

Nor distant rests the Chief; — but hush! 

See, gliding slow through mist and bush, 

The hermit gains yon rock, and stands 

To gaze upon our slumbering bands. 

Seems he not, Malise, like a ghost, 2495 

That hovers o'er a slaughtered host? 

Or raven on the blasted oak, 

That, watching while the deer is broke, 

His morsel claims with sullen croak?" 

MALISE 

"Peace! peace! to other than to me 2300 

Thy words were evil augury ; 

But still I hold Sir Roderick's blade 

Clan -Alpine's omen and her aid, 

Not aught that, gleaned from heaven or hell, 

Yon fiend-begotten Monk can tell. 2505 

The Chieftain joins him, see — and now 

Together they descend the brow." 

VI 

And, as they came, with Alpine's Lord 
The Hermit Monk held solemn word: — 
"Roderick! it is a fearful strife, 2510 



Q8 The Lady of the Lake [canto iv] 

For man endowed with mortal life, 
Whose shroud of sentient clay can still 
Feel feverish pang and fainting chill, 
Whose eye can stare in stony trance, 

2515 Whose hair can rouse like warrior's lance, — 

'T is hard for such to view, unfurled, 
The curtain of the future world. 
Yet, witness every quaking limb, 
My sunken pulse, mine eyeballs dim, 

2520 My soul with harrowing anguish torn, 

This for my Chieftain have I borne ! — 
The shapes that sought my fearful couch, 
A human tongue may ne'er avouch; 
No mortal man — save he, who, bred 

2525 Between the living and the dead, 

. Is gifted beyond nature's law- 
Had e'er survived to say he saw. 
At length the fateful answer came, 
In characters of living flame! 

2530 Not spoke in word, nor blazed in scroll, 

But borne and branded on my soul: — 
Which spills the foremost foeman's life, 
That party conquers in the strife." 

vii 

"Thanks, Brian, for thy zeal and care! 

2535 Good is thine augury, and fair. 

Clan -Alpine ne'er in battle stood 

But first our broadswords tasted blood. 

A surer victim still I know, 

Self -offered to the auspicious blow : 

2540 A spy has sought my land this morn, — 



[canto iv] The Prophecy gg 

No eve shall witness his return! 

My followers guard each pass's mouth, 

To east, to westward, and to south; 

Red Murdoch, bribed to be his guide, 

Has charge to lead his steps aside, 2545 

Till in deep path or dingle brown 

He light on those shall bring him down. — 

But see, who comes his news to show! 

Malise! what tidings of the foe?" 

VIII 

"At Doune, o'er many a spear and glaive 2550 

Two Barons proud their banners wave. 

I saw the Moray's silver star, 

And marked the sable pale of Mar." 

"By Alpine's soul, high tidings those! 

I love to hear of worthy foes. 2555 

When move they on?" "To-morrow's noon 

Will see them here for battle boune." 

"Then shall it see a meeting stern! 

But, for the place, — say, couldst thou learn 

Naught of the friendly clans of Earn? 2560 

Strengthened by them, we well might bide 

The battle on Benledi's side. 

Thou couldst not? — well! Clan-Alpine's men 

Shall man the Trosachs' shaggy glen; 

Within Loch Katrine's gorge we'll fight, 2505 

All in our maids' and matrons' sight, 

Each for his hearth and household fire, 

Father for child, and son for sire, 

Lover for maid beloved ! — But why — 

Is it the breeze affects mine eye? 2570 



ioo The Lady of the Lake [canto iv] 

Or dost thou come, ill-omened tear! 

A messenger of doubt or fear? 

No! sooner may the Saxon lance 

Unfix Benledi from his stance, 
2575 Than doubt or terror can pierce through 

The unyielding heart of Roderick Dhu! 

'T is stubborn as his rusty targe. 

Each to his post! — all know their charge." 

The pibroch sounds, the bands advance, 
2580 The broadswords gleam, the banners dance, 

Obedient to the Chieftain's glance. — 

I turn me from the martial roar, 

And seek Coir-Uriskin once more. 

IX 

Where is the Douglas? — he is gone; 

2585 And Ellen sits on the gray stone 

Fast by the cave, and makes her moan, 
While vainly Allan's words of cheer 
Are poured on her unheeding ear. 
"He will return, — dear lady, trust! — 

2590 With joy return; — he will — he must. 

Well was it time to seek afar 
Some refuge from impending war, 
When e'en Clan-Alpine's rugged swarm 
Are cowed by the approaching storm. 

2595 I saw their boats with many a light, 

Floating the livelong yesternight, 
Shifting like flashes darted forth 
By the red streamers of the north; 
I marked at morn how close they ride, 

26oo Thick moored by the lone islet's side, 



[canto iv] The Prophecy 101 

Like wild-ducks couching in the fen 

When stoops the hawk upon the glen. 

Since this rude race dare not abide 

The peril on the mainland side, 

Shall not thy noble father's care 2 

Some safe retreat for thee prepare?" 



ELLEN 

"No, Allan, no! Pretext so kind 

My wakeful terrors could not blind. 

When in such tender tone, yet grave, 

Douglas a parting blessing gave, 2610 

The tear that glistened in his eye 

Drowned not his purpose fixed and high. 

My soul, though feminine and weak, 

Can image his; e'en as the lake, 

Itself disturbed by slightest stroke, 2615 

Reflects the invulnerable rock. 

He hears report of battle rife, 

He deems himself the cause of strife. 

I saw him redden, when the theme 

Turned, Allan, on thine idle dream 2620 

Of Malcolm Graeme, in fetters bound, 

Which I, thou saidst, about him wound. 

Think'st thou he trowed thine omen aught? 

O no! 'twas apprehensive thought 

For the kind youth, — for Roderick too — 2625 

Let me be just — that friend so true ; 

In danger both, and in our cause! 

Minstrel, the Douglas dare not pause. 



102 The Lady of the Lake [canto iv] 

Why else that solemn warning given, 
2630 'If not on earth, we meet in heaven!' 

Why else, to Cambus-kenneth's fane, 

If eve return him not again, 

Am I to hie, and make me known? 

Alas! he goes to Scotland's throne, 
2635 Buys his friends' safety with his own; 

He goes to do — what I had done, 

Had Douglas' daughter been his son!" 

XI 

"Nay, lovely Ellen! — dearest, nay! 

If aught should his return delay, 
2640 He only named yon holy fane 

As fitting place to meet again. 

Be sure he's safe; and for the Graeme, — 

Heaven's blessing on his gallant name!— 

My visioned sight may yet prove true, 
2645 Nor bode of ill to him or you. 

When did my gifted dream beguile ? 

Think of the stranger at the isle, 

And think upon the harpings slow, 

That presaged this approaching woe! 
2650 Sooth was my prophecy of fear ; 

Believe it when it augurs cheer. 

Would we had left this dismal spot ! 

Ill luck still haunts a fairy grot. 

Of such a wondrous tale I know — 
2655 Dear lady, change that look of woe, 

My harp was wont thy grief to cheer." 



[canto iv] The Prophecy 103 

ELLEN 

"Well, be it as thou wilt; I hear, 

But cannot stop the bursting tear." 

The Minstrel tried his simple art, 

But distant far was Ellen's heart. 2600 

XII 
BALLAD 
ALICE BRAND 

Merry it is in the good greenwood, 

When the mavis and merle are singing, 

When the deer sweeps by, and the hounds are 
in cry, 
And the hunter's horn is ringing. 

"O Alice Brand, my native land 2005 

Is lost for love of you ; 
And we must hold by wood and wold, 

As outlaws wont to do. 

"O Alice, 't was all for thy locks so bright, 
And 't was all for thine eyes so blue, 2070 

That on the night of our luckless flight 
Thy brother bold I slew. 

"Now must I teach to hew the beech 

The hand that held the glaive, 
For leaves to spread our lowly bed, 2075 

And stakes to fence our cave. 

"And for vest of pall, thy fingers small, 

That wont on harp to stray, 
A cloak must shear from the slaughtered deer, 

To keep the cold away." 2680 



104 The Lady of the Lake [canto iv] 

"O Richard! if my brother died, 

T was but a fatal chance; 
For darkling was the battle tried, 

And fortune sped the lance. 

2685 "If pall and vair no more I wear, 

Nor thou the crimson sheen, 
As warm, we'll say, is the russet gray, 
As gay the forest-green. 

"And, Richard, if our lot be hard, 
2890 And lost thy native land, 

Still Alice has her own Richard, 
And he his Alice Brand/ ' 

XIII 
BALLAD CONTINUED 

'T is merry, 't is merry, in good greenwood; 
So blithe Lady Alice is singing; 
2695 On the beech's pride, and oak's brown side, 

Lord Richard's axe is ringing. 

Up spoke the moody Elfin King, 
Who woned within the hill, — 
Like wind in the porch of a ruined church, 
27oo His voice was ghostly shrill. 

"Why sounds yon stroke on beech and oak, 

Our moonlight circle's screen? 
Or who comes here to chase the deer, 

Beloved of our Elfin Queen? 
2705 Or who may dare on wold to wear 

The fairies' fatal green? 



[canto iv] The Prophecy ioj 

"Up, Urgan, up! to yon mortal hie, 

For thou wert christened man ; 
For cross or sign thou wilt not fly, 

For muttered word or ban. 2710 

"Lay on him the curse of the withered heart, 

The curse of the sleepless eye ; 
Till he wish and pray that his life would part, 

Nor yet find leave to die." 

XIV 
BALLAD CONTINUED 

'T is merry, 't is merry, in good greenwood, 2715 
Though the birds have stilled their singing; 

The evening blaze doth Alice raise, 
And Richard is fagots bringing. 

Up Urgan starts, that hideous dwarf, 

Before Lord Richard stands, 2720 

And, as he crossed and blessed himself, 
"I fear not sign/' quoth the grisly elf, 
"That is made with bloody hands/' 

But out then spoke she, Alice Brand, 

That woman void of fear, — 2725 

"And if there's blood upon his hand, 
T is but the blood of deer." 

"Now loud thou liest, thou bold of mood! 

It cleaves unto his hand, 
The stain of thine own kindly blood, 2730 

The blood of Ethert Brand." 



106 The Lady of the Lake [canto iv] 

Then forward stepped she, Alice Brand, 

And made the holy sign, — 
"And if there's blood on Richard's hand, 
2735 A spotless hand is mine. 

"And I conjure thee, demon elf, 

By Him whom demons fear, 
To show us whence thou art thyself, 

And what thine errand here?" 

xv 

BALLAD CONTINUED 

2740 " 'T is merry, 't is merry, in Fairy-land, 

When fairy birds are singing, 
When the court doth ride by their monarch's side, 
With bit and bridle ringing: 

"And gayly shines the Fairy-land — 
2745 But all is glistening show, 

Like the idle gleam that December's beam 
Can dart on ice and snow. 

"And fading, like that varied gleam, 
Is our inconstant shape, 
2750 Who now like knight and lady seem, 

And now like dwarf and ape. 

"It was between the night and day, 
When the Fairy King has power, 
That I sunk down in a sinful fray, 
2755 And 'twixt life and death was snatched away 

To the joyless Elfin bower. 



[canto iv] The Prophecy ioy 

"But wist I of a woman bold, 

Who thrice my brow durst sign, 
I might regain my mortal mould, 

As fair a form as thine." 2760 

She crossed him once — she crossed him twice — 

That lady was so brave; 
The fouler grew his goblin hue, 

The darker grew the cave. 

She crossed him thrice, that lady bold; 2765 

He rose beneath her hand 
The fairest knight on Scottish mould, 

Her brother, Ethert Brand! 

Merry it is in good greenwood, 

When the mavis and merle are singing 2770 

But merrier were they in Dunfermline gray, 

When all the bells were ringing. 

xvi 

Just as the minstrel sounds were stayed, 

A stranger climbed the steepy glade ; 

His martial step, his stately mien, 2775 

His hunting suit of Lincoln, green, 

His eagle glance, remembrance claims — 

'T is Snowdoun's Knight, 't is James Fitz- James. 

Ellen beheld as in a dream, 

Then, starting, scarce suppressed a scream: 2780 

"O stranger! in such hour of fear 

What evil hap has brought thee here?" 

"An evil hap how can it be, 

That bids me look again on thee ? 



108 The Lady of the Lake [canto iv] 

2785 By promise bound, my former guide 

Met me betimes this morning-tide, 
And marshalled over bank and bourne, 
The happy path of my return/' 
'The happy path! — what! said he naught 

27so Of war, of battle to be fought, 

Of guarded pass?" — "No, by my faith! 
Nor saw I aught could augur scathe." 
- "O haste thee, Allan, to the kern: 
Yonder his tartans I discern; 

2795 Learn thou his purpose, and conjure 

That he will guide the stranger sure ! — 
What prompted thee, unhappy man? 
The meanest serf in Roderick's clan * 
Had not been bribed, by love or fear, 

2800 Unknown to him to guide thee here." 

XVII 

"Sweet Ellen, dear my life must be, 

Since it is worthy care from thee ; 

Yet life I hold but idle breath, 

When love or honor's weighed with death. 

2805 Then let me profit by my chance, 

And speak my purpose bold at once. 
I come to bear thee from a wild 
Where ne'er before such blossom smiled , 
By this soft hand to lead thee far 

28io From frantic scenes of feud and war. 

Near Bochastle my horses wait: 
They bear us soon to Stirling gate. 
I'll place thee in a lovely bower, 
I'll guard thee like a tender flower — " 



[canto iv] The Prophecy log 

"O httsh, Sir Knight! 't were female art, wis 

To say I do not read thy heart ; 

Too much, before, my selfish ear 

Was idly soothed my praise to hear. 

That fatal bait hath lured thee back, 

In deathful hour, o'er dangerous track; 2820 

And how, O how, can I atone 

The wreck my vanity brought on ! — 

One way remains — I'll tell him all — 

Yes! struggling bosom, forth it shall! 

Thou, whose light folly bears the blame, 2825 

Buy thine own pardon with thy shame ! 

But first — my father is a man 

Outlawed and exiled, under ban; 

The price of blood is on his head, 

With me 't were infamy to wed. 2830 

Still wouldst thou speak ? — then hear the truth ! 

Fitz-James, there is a noble youth — 

If yet he is ! — exposed for me 

And mine to dread extremity — 

Thou hast the secret of my heart; 2835 

Forgive, be generous, and depart!" 

XVIII 

Fitz-James knew every wily train 

A lady's fickle heart to gain, 

But here he knew and felt them vain. 

There shot no glance from Ellen's eye, 28*0 

To give her steadfast speech the lie; 

In maiden confidence she stood, 

Though mantled in her cheek the blood, 

And told her love with such a sigh 



no The Lady of the Lake [canto iv] 

2845 Of deep and hopeless agony, 

As death had sealed her Malcolm's doom 

And she sat sorrowing on his tomb. 

Hope vanished from Fitz-James's eye, 

But not with hope fled sympathy. 
2850 He proffered to attend her side, 

As brother would a sister guide. 

"O little know'st thou Roderick's heart! 

Safer for both we go apart. 

O haste thee, and from Allan learn 
2855 If thou mayst trust yon wily kern." 

With hand upon his forehead laid, 

The conflict of his mind to shade, 

A parting step or two he made ; 

Then, as some thought had crossed his brain, 
2860 He paused, and turned, and came again. 

XIX 

"Hear, lady, yet, a parting word! — 
It chanced in fight that my poor sword 
Preserved the life of Scotland's lord. 
This ring the grateful Monarch gave, 

2865 And bade, when I had boon to crave, 

To bring it back, and boldly claim 
The recompense that I would name. 
Ellen, I am no courtly lord, 
But one who lives by lance and sword, 

2870 Whose castle is his helm and shield, 

His lordship the embattled field. 
What from a prince can I demand, 
Who neither reck of state nor land ? 
Ellen, thy hand — the ring is thine; 



[canto iv] The Prophecy III 

Each guard and usher knows the sign. 2875 

Seek thou the King without delay ; 

This signet shall secure thy way : 

And claim thy suit, whate'er it be, 

As ransom of his pledge to me." 

He placed the golden circlet on, 2880 

Paused — kissed her hand — and then was gone. 

The aged Minstrel stood aghast, 

So hastily Fitz-James shot past. 

He joined his guide, and winding down 

The ridges of the mountain brown, 2885 

Across the stream they took their way 

That joins Loch Katrine to Achray. 

xx 

All in the Trosachs' glen was still, 

Noontide was sleeping on the hill : 

Sudden his guide whooped loud and high — 2890 

"Murdoch! was that a signal cry? — " 

He stammered forth, "I shout to scare 

Yon raven from his dainty fare." 

He looked — he knew the raven's prey, 

His own brave steed: — "Ah! gallant gray! 2895 

For thee — for me, perchance — 't were well 

We ne'er had seen the Trosachs' dell. — 

Murdoch, move first — but silently; 

Whistle or whoop, and thou shalt die!" 

Jealous and sullen on they fared, 2900 

Each silent, each upon his guard. 

XXI 

Now wound the path its dizzy ledge 
Around a precipice's edge, 



H2 The Lady of the Lake [canto iv] 

When lo! a wasted female form, 

2905 Blighted by wrath of sun and storm, 

In tattered weeds and wild array, 
Stood on a cliff beside the way, 
And glancing round her restless eye, 
Upon the wood, the rock, the sky, 

2910 Seemed naught to mark, yet all to spy. 

Her brow was wreathed with gaudy broom; 
With gesture wild she waved a plume 
Of feathers, which the eagles fling 
To crag and cliff from dusky wing; 

2915 Such spoils her desperate step had sought, 

Where scarce was footing for the goat. 
The tartan plaid she first descried, 
And shrieked till all the rocks replied ; 
As loud she laughed, when near they drew, 

2920 For then the Lowland garb she knew ; 

And then her hands she wildly wrung, 
And then she wept, and then she sung — 
She sung! — the voice, in better time, 
Perchance to harp or lute might chime; 

2925 And now, though strained and roughened, still 

Rung wildly sweet to dale and hill. 

XXII 
SONG 

They bid me sleep, they bid me pray, 

They say my brain is warped and wrung — 
I cannot sleep on Highland brae, 
29*0 I cannot pray in Highland tongue. 

But were I now where Allan glides, 
Or heard my native Devan's tides, 



[canto iv] The Prophecy 113 

So sweetly would I rest, and pray 

That Heaven would close my wintry day ! 

'T was thus my hair they bade me braid, 2*35 

They made me to the church repair; 

It was my bridal morn they said, 

And my true love would meet me there. 

But woe betide the cruel guile 

That drowned in blood the morning smile ! 2940 

And woe betide the fairy dream! 

I only waked to sob and scream. 

XXIII 

"Who is this maid? what means her lay? 

She hovers o'er the hollow way, 

And flutters wide her mantle gray, 2945 

As the lone heron spreads his wing, 

By twilight, o'er a haunted spring." 

"'T is Blanche of Devan," Murdoch said, 

"A crazed and captive Lowland maid, 

Ta'en on the morn she was a bride, 2950 

When Roderick forayed Devan-side. 

The gay bridegroom resistance made, 

And felt our Chief's unconquered blade. 

I marvel she is now at large, 

But oft she 'scapes from Maudlin's charge. — 2955 

Hence, brain-sick fool!" — He raised his bow: — 

"Now if thou strik'st her but one blow, 

I'll pitch thee from the cliff as far 

As ever peasant pitched a bar!" 

"Thanks, champion, thanks!" the Maniac cried, 2900 

And pressed her to Fitz-James's side. 

"See the gray pennons I prepare, 



114 The Lady of the Lake [canto iv] 

To seek my true love through the air ! 
I will not lend that savage groom, 

2965 To break his fall, one downy plume! 

No! — deep amid disjointed stones, 
The wolves shall batten on his bones, 
And then shall his detested plaid, 
By bush and brier in mid-air stayed, 

2970 Wave forth a banner fair and free, 

Meet signal for their revelry." 

xxiv 
' 'Hush thee, poor maiden, and be still !" 
"O! thou look'st kindly, and I will. 
Mine eye has dried and wasted been, 
2975 But still it loves the Lincoln green ; 

And, though mine ear is all unstrung, 
Still, still it loves the Lowland tongue. 

"For O my sweet William was forester true, 
He stole poor Blanche's heart away! 
2980 His coat it was all of the greenwood hue, 

And so blithely he trilled the Lowland lay ! 

"It was not that I meant to tell . . . 
But thou art wise, and guessest well." 
Then, in a low and broken tone, 
2985 And hurried note, the song went on. 

Still on the Clansman fearfully 
She fixed her apprehensive eye, 
Then turned it on the Knight, and then 
Her look glanced wildly o'er the glen. 



[canto iv] The Prophecy 115 

xxv 
"The toils are pitched, and the stakes are set, — 2990 

Ever sing merrily, merrily; 
The bows they bend, and the knives they whet, 

Hunters live so cheerily. 

"It was a stag, a stag of ten, 

Bearing its branches sturdily ; 2995 

He came stately down the glen, — 

Ever sing hardily, hardily. 

"It was there he met with a wounded doe, 

She was bleeding deathfully ; 
She warned him of the toils below, 3000 

O, so faithfully, faithfully! 

"He had an eye, and he could heed, — 

Ever sing warily, warily; 
He had a foot, and he could speed, — 

Hunters watch so narrowly. ' ' 3005 

XXVI 

Fitz-James's mind was passion-tossed, 

When Ellen's hints and fears were lost; 

But Murdoch's shout suspicion wrought, 

And Blanche's song conviction brought. 

Not like a stag that spies the snare, 3010 

But lion of the hunt aware, 

He waved at once his blade on high, 

"Disclose thy treachery, or die!" 

Forth at full speed the Clansman flew, 

But in his race his bow he drew. 3015 

The shaft just grazed Fitz-James's crest, 



iid The Lady of the Lake [canto iv] 

And thrilled in Blanche's faded breast, — 
Murdoch of Alpine! prove thy speed, 
For ne'er had Alpine's son such need; 

3020 With heart of fire, and foot of wind, 

The fierce avenger is behind ! 
Fate judges of the rapid strife — 
The forfeit death — the prize is life; 
Thy kindred ambush lies before, 

3025 Close couched upon the heathery moor; 

Them couldst thou reach! — it may not be— 
Thine ambushed kin thou ne'er shalt see, 
The fiery Saxon gains on thee! — 
Resistless speeds the deadly thrust, 

3030 As lightning strikes the pine to dust; 

With foot and hand Fitz-James must strain 
Ere he can win his blade again. 
Bent o'er the fallen with falcon eye, 
He grimly smiled to see him die, 

3035 Then slower wended back his way, 

Where the poor maiden bleeding lay 

XXVII 

She sat beneath the birchen tree, 
Her elbow resting on her knee; 
She had withdrawn the fatal shaft, 

3040 And gazed on it, and feebly laughed; 

Her wreath of broom and feathers gray, 
Daggled with blood, beside her lay. 
The Knight to stanch the life-stream tried, — 
"Stranger, it is in vain!" she cried. 

3045 "This hour of death has given me more 

Of reason's power than years before; 



[canto iv] The Prophecy nj 

For, as these ebbing veins decay, 

My frenzied visions fade away. 

A helpless injured wretch I die, 

And something tells me in thine eye 3050 

That thou wert mine avenger born. 

Seest thou this tress? — O! still I've worn 

This little tress of yellow hair, 

Through danger, frenzy, and despair! 

It once was bright and clear as thine, 3055 

But blood and tears have dimmed its shine. 

I will not tell thee when 't was shred, 

Nor from what guiltless victim's head, — 

My brain would turn! — but it shall wave 

Like plumage on thy helmet brave, 3oeo 

Till sun and wind shall bleach the stain, 

And thou wilt bring it me again. 

I waver still. — O God! more bright 

Let reason beam her parting light! — 

O! by thy knighthood's honored sign, soes 

And for thy life preserved by mine, 

When thou shalt see a darksome man, 

Who boasts him Chief of Alpine's clan, 

With tartans broad and shadowy plume, 

And hand of blood, and brow of gloom, 3070 

Be thy heart bold, thy weapon strong, 

And wreak poor Blanche of Devan's wrong! — 

They watch for thee by pass and fell . . . 

Avoid the path . . . O God! . . . farewell." 

XXVIII 

A kindly heart had brave Fitz-James; 3075 

Fast poured his eyes at pity's claims; 



n8 The Lady of the Lake [canto iv] 

And now, with mingled grief and ire, 
He saw the murdered maid expire. 
"God, in my need, be my relief, 

3080 As I wreak this on yonder Chief !" 

A lock from Blanche's tresses fair 
He blended with her bridegroom's hair; 
The mingled braid in blood he dyed, 
And placed it on his bonnet-side : 

3085 "By Him whose word is truth, I swear, 

No other favor will I wear, 
Till this sad token I imbrue 
In the best blood of Roderick Dhu ! — 
But hark! what means yon faint halloo? 

3090 The chase is up, — but they shall know, 

The stag at bay's a dangerous foe." 
Barred from the known but guarded way, 
Through copse and cliff Fitz-James must stray, 
And oft must change his desperate track, 

3095 By stream and precipice turned back. 

Heartless, fatigued, and faint, at length, 
From lack of food and loss of strength, 
He couched him in a thicket hoar, 
And thought his toils and perils o'er: — 

3100 "Of all my rash adventures past, 

This frantic feat must prove the last! 
Who e'er so mad but might have guessed 
That all this Highland hornet's nest 
Would muster up in swarms so soon 

3105 As e'er they heard of bands at Doune? — 

Like bloodhounds now they search me out, — 
Hark, to the whistle and the shout! — 



[canto iv] The Prophecy ng 

If farther through the wilds I go, 

I only fall upon the foe 

I'll couch me here till evening gray, 3110 

Then darkling try my dangerous way." 

XXIX 

The shades of eve come slowly down, 

The woods are wrapt in deeper brown, 

The owl awakens from her dell, 

The fox is heard upon the fell ; 3115 

Enough remains of glimmering light 

To guide the wanderer's steps aright. 

Yet not enough from far to show 

His figure to the watchful foe. 

With cautious step and ear awake, 3120 

He climbs the crag and threads the brake ; 

And not the summer solstice there 

Tempered the midnight mountain air, 

But every breeze that swept the wold 

Benumbed his drenched limbs with cold. 3125 

In dread, in danger, and alone, 

Famished and chilled, through ways unknown, 

Tangled and steep, he journeyed on; 

Till, as a rock's huge point he turned, 

A watch-fire close before him burned. 3130 

XXX 

Beside its embers red and clear, 

Basked in his plaid a mountaineer; 

And up he sprung with sword in hand, — 

"Thy name and purpose! Saxon, stand!" 

"A stranger." "What dost thou require?" 3135 

"Rest and a guide, and food and fire. 



120 The Lady of the Lake [canto iv] 

My life's beset, my path is lost, 

The gale has chilled my limbs with frost." 

"Art thou a friend to Roderick?" "No." 

alio "Thou dar'st not call thyself a foe?" 

"I dare! to him and all the band 
He brings to aid his murderous hand." 
"Bold words! — but, though the beast of game 
The privilege of chase may claim, 

3145 Though space and law the stag we lend, 

Ere hound we slip or bow we bend, 
Who ever recked, where, how, or when, 
The prowling fox was trapped or slain? 
Thus treacherous scouts, — yet sure they lie, 

3ioo Who say thou cam'st a secret spy!" — 

"They do, by heaven! — Come Roderick Dhu, 

And of his clan the boldest two, 

And let me but till morning rest, 

I write the falsehood on their crest." 

3155 "If by the blaze I mark aright, 

Thou bear'st the belt and spur of Knight." 
"Then by these tokens may'st thou know 
Each proud oppressor's mortal foe." 
"Enough, enough; sit down and share 

3i6o A soldier's couch, a soldier's fare." 

XXXI 

He gave him of his Highland cheer, 
The hardened flesh of mountain deer; 
Dry fuel on the fire he laid, 
And bade the Saxon share his plaid. 
3i65 He tended him like welcome guest, 

Then thus his further speech addressed: — 



[canto iv] The Prophecy 121 

■ 'Stranger, I am to Roderick Dhu 

A clansman born, a kinsman true; 

Each word against his honor spoke 

Demands of me avenging stroke; 3170 

Yet more, — upon thy fate, 'tis said, 

A mighty augury is laid. 

It rests with me to wind my horn, — 

Thou art with numbers overborne; 

It rests with me, here, brand to brand, 3175 

Worn as thou art, to bid thee stand: 

But, not for clan, nor kindred's cause, 

Will I depart from honor's laws; 

To assail a wearied man were shame, 

And stranger is a holy name ; siso 

Guidance and rest, and food and fire, 

In vain he never must require. 

Then rest thee here till dawn of day; 

Myself will guide thee on the way, 

O'er stock and stone, through watch and ward ,3185 

Till past Clan-Alpine's outmost guard, 

As far as Coilantogle's ford; 

From thence thy warrant is thy sword." 

"I take thy courtesy, by Heaven, 

As freely as 't is nobly given!" 3190 

"Well, rest thee; for the bittern's cry 

Sings us the lake's wild lullaby." 

With that he shook the gathered heath, 

And spread his plaid upon the wreath; 

And the brave foemen, side by side, 3195 

Lay peaceful down like brothers tried, 

And slept until the dawning beam 

Purpled the mountain and the stream. 



CANTO FIFTH 



Fair as the earliest beam of eastern light, 
3200 When first, by the bewildered pilgrim spied, 
It smiles upon the dreary brow of night, 

And silvers o'er the torrent's foaming tide, 
And lights the fearful path on mountain-side, — - 
Fair as that beam, although the fairest far, 
3205 Giving to horror grace, to danger pride, 

Shine martial Faith, and Courtesy's bright star, 
Through all the wreckful storms that cloud the 
brow of War. 

ii 

That early beam, so fair and sheen, 
Was twinkling through the hazel screen, 

3210 When, rousing at its glimmer red, 

The warriors left their lowly bed, 
Looked out upon the dappled sky, 
Muttered their soldier matins by, 
And then awaked their fire, to steal, 

3215 As short and rude, their soldier meal. 

That o'er, the Gael around him threw 
His graceful plaid of varied hue, 
And, true to promise, led the way, 
By thicket green and mountain gray. 

3220 A wildering path! — they winded now 

Along the precipice's brow, 

1122] 



[canto v] The Combat 123 

Commanding the rich scenes beneath, 

The windings of the Forth and Teith, 

And all the vales between that lie, 

Till Stirling's turrets melt in sky; 3225 

Then, sunk in copse, their farthest glance 

Gained not the length of horseman's lance. 

'T was oft so steep, the foot was fain 

Assistance from the hand to gain; 

So tangled oft that, bursting through, 3230 

Each hawthorn shed her showers of dew, — 

That diamond dew, so pure and clear, 

It rivals all but Beauty's tear! 

in 

At length they came where, stern and steep, 

The hill sinks down upon the deep. 3235 

Here Vennachar in silver flows, 

There, ridge on ridge, Benledi rose; 

Ever the hollow path twined on, 

Beneath steep bank and threatening stone; 

A hundred men might hold the post 3240 

With hardihood against a host. 

The rugged mountain's scanty cloak 

Was dwarfish shrubs of birch and oak, 

With shingles bare, and cliffs between, 

And patches bright of bracken green, 3245 

And heather black, that waved so high, 

It held the copse in rivalry. 

But where the lake slept deep and still, 

Dank osiers fringed the swamp and hill; 

And oft both path and hill were torn, 3250 

Where wintry torrent down had borne, 



724 The Lady of the Lake [canto v] 

And heaped upon the cumbered land 
Its wreck of gravel, rocks, and sand. 
So toilsome was the road to trace, 
3255 The guide, abating of his pace, 

Led slowly through the pass's jaws, 
And asked Fitz-James by what strange cause 
He sought these wilds, traversed by few, 
Without a pass from Roderick Dhu. 

IV 

3260 "Brave Gael, my pass, in danger tried, 

Hangs in my belt and by my side; 
Yet, sooth to tell," the Saxon said, 
"I dreamt not now to claim its aid. 
When here, but three days since, I came, 

3265 Bewildered in pursuit of game, 

All seemed as peaceful and as still 
As the mist slumbering on yon hill ; 
Thy dangerous chief was then afar, 
Nor soon expected back from war. 

3270 Thus said, at least, my mountain-guide, 

Though deep perchance the villain lied." 
"Yet why a second venture try?" 
"A warrior thou, and ask me why! — 
Moves our free course by such fixed cause 

3275 As gives the poor mechanic laws? 

Enough, I sought to drive away 
The lazy hours of peaceful day; 
Slight cause will then suffice to guide 
A Knight's free footsteps far and wide, — 

3280 A falcon flown, a greyhound strayed, 

The merry glance of mountain maid; 



[canto v] The Combat 125 

Or, if a path be dangerous known, 
The danger's self is lure alone." 



'Thy secret keep, I urge thee not; — 
Yet, ere again ye sought this spot, 
Say, heard ye naught of Lowland war, 
Against Clan -Alpine, raised by Mar?" 
4 'No, by my word; — of bands prepared 
To guard King James's sport I heard; 
Nor doubt I aught, but, when they hear 
This muster of the mountaineer, 
Their pennons will abroad be flung, 
Which else in Doune had peaceful hung." 
"Free be they flung! for we were loath 
Their silken folds should feast the moth. 
Free be they flung! — as free shall wave 
Clan-Alpine's pine in banner brave. 
But, stranger, peaceful since you came, 
Bewildered in the mountain-game, 
Whence the bold boast by which you show 
Vich-Alpine's vowed and mortal foe?" 
* 'Warrior, but yester-morn, I knew 
Naught of thy Chieftain, Roderick Dhu, 
Save as an outlawed desperate man, 
The chief of a rebellious clan, 
Who, in the Regent's court and sight, 
With ruffian dagger stabbed a knight; 
Yet this alone might from his part 
Sever each tiue and loyal heart." 

VI 

Wrathful at such arraignment foul, 
Dark lowered the clansman's sable scowl. 



! 



126 The Lady of the Lake [canto v] 

A space he paused, then sternly said, 
"And heardst thou why he drew his blade? 
Heardst thou that shameful word and blow 

3315 Brought Roderick's vengeance on his foe? 

What recked the Chieftain if he stood 
On Highland heath, or Holy-Rood? 
He rights such wrong where it is given, 
If it were in the court of heaven.' ' 

3320 "Still was it outrage; — yet, 't is true, 

Not then claimed sovereignty his due ; 
While Albany with feeble hand 
Held borrowed truncheon of command, 
The young King, mewed in Stirling tower, 

3325 Was stranger to respect and power. 

But then, thy Chieftain's robber life! — 
Winning mean prey by causeless strife, 
Wrenching from ruined Lowland swain 
His herds and harvest reared in vain, — 

3330 Methinks a soul, like thine, should scorn 

The spoils from such foul foray borne.' ' 

VII 

The Gael beheld him grim the while, 
And answered with disdainful smile: 
"Saxon, from yonder mountain high, 

3335 I marked thee send delighted eye 

Far to the south and east, where lay, 
Extended in succession gay, 
Deep waving fields and pastures green, 
With gentle slopes and groves between: — 

3340 These fertile plains, that softened vale, 

Were once the birthright of the Gael; 



[canto v] The Combat 127 

The stranger came with iron hand, 

And from our fathers reft the land. 

Where dwell we now! See, rudely swell 

Crag over crag, and fell o'er fell. 3345 

Ask we this savage hill we tread, 

For fattened steer or household bread, 

Ask we for flocks these shingles dry, 

And well the mountain might reply, — 

'To you, as to your sires of yore, 3350 

Belong the target and claymore! 

I give you shelter in my breast, 

Your own good blades must win the rest/ 

Pent in this fortress of the North, 

Think'st thou we will not sally forth, 3355 

To spoil the spoiler as we may, 

And from the robber rend the prey ? 

Ay, by my soul!— While on yon plain 

The Saxon rears one shock of grain, 

While of ten thousand herds there strays 3360 

But one along yon river's maze, — 

The Gael, of plain and river heir, 

Shall with strong hand redeem his share. 

Where live the mountain Chiefs who hold 

That plundering lowland field and fold 3365 

Is aught but retribution true? 

Seek other cause 'gainst Roderick Dhu." 

vm 

Answered Fitz-James: "And, if I sought, 
Think'st thou no other could be brought? 
What deem ye of my path waylaid ? 3370 

My life given o'er to ambuscade?" 



128 The Lady of the Lake [canto v] 

"As of a meed to rashness due: 

Hadst thou sent warning fair and true, — 

I seek my hound or falcon strayed, 

3375 I seek, good faith, a Highland maid, — 

Free hadst thou been to come and go ; 
But secret path marks secret foe. 
Nor yet for this, even as a spy, 
Hadst thou, unheard, been doomed to die, 

3380 Save to fulfill an augury." 

"Well, let it pass; nor will I now 
Fresh cause of enmity avow, 
To chafe thy mood and cloud thy brow. 
Enough, I am by promise tied 

3385 To match me with this man of pride : 

Twice have I sought Clan-Alpine's glen 
In peace; but when I come again, 
I come with banner, brand, and bow, 
As leader seeks his mortal foe. 

3390 For love-lorn swain in lady's bower 

Ne'er panted for the appointed hour, 
As I, until before me stand 
This rebel Chieftain and his band!" 

IX 

"•Have then thy wish!" — He whistled shrill, 
3395 And he was answered from the hill ; 

Wild as the scream of the curlew, 
From crag to crag the signal flew. 
Instant, through copse and heath, arose 
Bonnets and spears and bended bows; 
3400 On right, on left, above, below, 

Sprung up at once the lurking foe; 



[canto v] The Combat I2Q 

From shingle gray their lances start, 

The bracken bush sends forth the dart, 

The rushes and the willow-wand 

Are bristling into axe and brand, 3405 

And every tuft of broom gives life 

To plaided warrior armed for strife. 

That whistle garrisoned the glen 

At once with full five hundred men, 

As if the yawning hill to heaven 3410 

A subterranean host had given. 

Watching their leader's beck and will, 

All silent there they stood and still. 

Like the loose crags whose threatening mass 

Lay tottering o'er the hollow pass, 3415 

As if an infant's touch could urge 

Their headlong passage down the verge, 

With step and weapon forward flung, 

Upon the mountain-side they hung. 

The Mountaineer cast glance of pride 3420 

Along Benledi's living side, 

Then fixed his eye and sable brow 

Full on Fitz- James: "How say'st thou now? 

These are Clan-Alpine's warriors true; 

Arid, Saxon, — I am Roderick Dhu!" 3425 



Fitz- James was brave: — though to his heart 

The life-blood thrilled with sudden start, 

He manned himself with dauntless air, 

Returned the Chief his haughty stare, 

His back against a rock he bore, 3430 

And firmly placed his foot before :- 



130 The Lady of the Lake [canto v] 

"Come one, come all J this rock shall fly 

From its firm base as soon as I." 

Sir Roderick marked, — and in his eyes 

3435 Respect was mingled with surprise, 

And the stern joy which warriors feel 
In foeman worthy of their steel. 
Short space he stood — then waved his hand : 
Down sunk the disappearing band; 

3440 Each warrior vanished where he stood, 

In broom or bracken, heath or wood; 
Sunk brand and spear and bended bow* 
In osiers pale and copses low ; 
It seemed as if their mother Earth 

3445 Had swallowed up her warlike birth. 

The wind's last breath had tossed in air, 
Pennon and plaid and plumage fair, — 
The next but swept a lone hill-side, 
Where heath and fern were waving wide: 

3450 The sun's last glance was glinted back 

From spear and glaive, from targe and jack, — 

The next, all unreflected, shone 

On bracken green, and cold gray stone. 

XI 

Fitz-James looked round, — yet scarce believed 
3455 The witness that his sight received ; 

Such apparition well might seem 

Delusion of a dreadful dream. 

Sir Roderick in suspense he eyed, 

And to his look the Chief replied: 
3480 "Fear naught — nay, that I need not say — 

But — doubt not aught from mine array. 



[canto v] The Combat iji 

Thou art my guest ; — I pledged my word 

As far as Coilantogle ford: 

Nor would I call a clansman's brand 

For aid against one valiant hand, 3465 

Though on our strife lay every vale 

Rent by the Saxon from the Gael. 

So move we on ; — I only meant 

To show the reed on which you leant, 

Deeming this path you might pursue 3470 

Without a pass from Roderick Dim." 

They moved ; — I said Fitz-James was brave 

As ever knight that belted glaive, 

Yet dare not say that now his blood 

Kept on its wont and tempered flood, 3475 

As, following Roderick's stride, he drew 

That seeming lonesome pathway through, 

Which yet by fearful proof was rife 

With lances, that, to take his life, 

Waited but signal from a guide, 34so 

So late dishonored and defied. 

Ever, by stealth, his eye sought round 

The vanished guardians of the ground, 

And still from copse and heather deep, 

Fancy saw spear and broadsword peep, 3485 

And in the plover's shrilly strain, 

The signal whistle heard again. 

Nor breathed he free till far behind 

The pass was left ; for then they wind 

Along a wide and level green, 3490 

Where neither tree nor tuft was seen, 

Nor rush nor bush of broom was near, 

To hide a bonnet or a spear. 



IJ2 The Lady of the Lake [canto v] 

xii 
The Chief in silence strode before, 

3495 And reached that torrent's sounding shore, 

Which, daughter of three mighty lakes, 
From Vennachar in silver breaks, 
Sweeps through the plain, and ceaseless mines 
On Bochastle the mouldering lines, 

3500 Where Rome, the Empress of the world, 

Of yore her eagle wings unfurled. 
And here his course the Chieftain stayed, 
Threw down his target and his plaid, 
And to the Lowland warrior said : 

3505 "Bold Saxon! to his promise just, 

Vich-Alpine has discharged his trust. 
This murderous Chief, this ruthless man, 
This head of a rebellious clan, 
Hath led thee safe, through watch and ward 

35io Far past Clan-Alpine's outmost guard, 

Now, man to man, and steel to steel, 
A Chieftain's vengeance thou shalt feel. 
See, here all vantageless I stand, 
Armed like thyself with single brand ; 

3515 For this is Coilantogle ford, 

And thou must keep thee with thy sword.' ' 

XIII 

The Saxon paused: "I ne'er delayed, 
When f oeman bade me draw my blade ; 
Nay, more, brave Chief, I vowed thy death ; 
3520 Yet sure thy fair and generous faith, 

And my deep debt for life preserved, 
A better meed have well deserved : 



[canto v] The Combat 133 

Can naught but blood our feud atone? 

Are there no means?" — "No, stranger, none! 

And hear, — to fire thy flagging zeal, — 3525 

The Saxon cause rests on thy steel ; 

For thus spoke Fate by prophet bred 

Between the living and the dead: 

'Who spills the foremost foeman's life, 

His party conquers in the strife/ " 3530 

"Then, by my word," the Saxon said, 

"The riddle is already read. 

Seek yonder brake beneath the cliff, — 

There lies Red Murdoch, stark and stiff. 

Thus Fate hath solved her prophecy; 3535 

Then yield to Fate, and not to me. 

To James at Stirling let us go, 

When, if thou wilt be still his foe, 

Or if the King shall not agree 

To grant thee grace and favor free, 3540 

I plight mine honor, oath, and word 

That, to thy native strengths restored, 

With each advantage shalt thou stand 

That aids thee now to guard thy land." 

XIV 

Dark lightning flashed from Roderick's eye: 3545 

"Soars thy presumption, then, so high, 

Because a wretched kern ye slew, 

Homage to name to Roderick Dhu? 

He yields not, he, to man nor Fate! 

Thou add'st but fuel to my hate; — 3550 

My clansman's blood demands revenge. 

Not yet prepared? — By heaven, I change 



134 The Lady of the Lake [canto v] 

My thought, and hold thy valor light 
As that of some vain carpet knight, 

3555 Who ill deserved my courteous care, 

And whose best boast is but to wear 
A braid of his fair lady's hair." 
"I thank thee, Roderick, for the word! 
It nerves my heart, it steels my sword ; 

3560 For I have sworn this braid to stain 

In the best blood that warms thy vein. 
Now, truce, farewell! and, ruth, begone! — 
Yet think not that by thee alone, 
Proud Chief! can courtesy be shown; 

3565 Though not from copse, or heath, or cairn, 

Start at my whistle clansmen stern, 
Of this small horn one feeble blast 
Would fearful odds against thee cast. 
But fear not — doubt not — which thou wilt — 

3570 We try this quarrel hilt to hilt." 

Then each at once his falchion drew, 
Each on the ground his scabbard threw, 
Each looked to sun and stream and plain, 
As what they ne'er might see again; 

3575 Then foot and point and eye opposed, 

In dubious strife they darkly closed. 

xv 

111 fared it then with Roderick Dhu, 
That on the field his targe he threw, 
Whose brazen studs and tough bull-hide 
3580 Had death so often dashed aside; 

For, trained abroad his arms to wield, 
Fitz-James's blade was sword and shield. 



[canto v] The Combat 135 

He practised every pass and ward, 

To thrust, to strike, to feint, to guard; 

While less expert, though stronger far, 3585 

The Gael maintained unequal war. 

Three times in closing strife they stood, 

And thrice the Saxon blade drank blood ; 

No stinted draught, no scanty tide, 

The gushing flood the tartans dyed. 3590 

Fierce Roderick felt the fatal drain, 

And showered his blows like wintry rain; 

And, as firm rock or castle-roof 

Against the winter shower is proof, 

The foe, invulnerable still, 3595 

Foiled his wild rage by steady skill ; 

Till, at advantage ta'en, his brand 

Forced Roderick's weapon from his hand, 

And backward borne upon the lea, 

Brought the proud Chieftain to his knee. 3eoo 

xvi 

"Now yield thee, or by Him who made 

The world, thy heart's blood dyes my blade!' 

"Thy threats, thy mercy, I defy! 

Let recreant yield, who fears to die." 

Like adder darting from his coil, 3605 

Like wolf that dashes through the toil, 

Like mountain-cat who guards her young, 

Full at Fitz-James's throat he sprung; 

Received, but recked not of a wound, 

And locked his arms his foeman round. — 3610 

Now, gallant Saxon, hold thine own! 

No maiden's hand is round thee thrown! 



136 The Lady of the Lake [canto v] 

That desperate grasp thy frame might feel 
Through bars of brass and triple steel! 

36i5 They tug, they strain! down, down they go, 

The Gael above, Fitz-James below. 
The Chieftain's gripe his throat compressed, 
His knee was planted on his breast ; 
His clotted locks he backward threw, 

3620 Across his brow his hand he drew, 

From blood and mist to clear his sight, 
Then gleamed aloft his dagger bright ! 
But hate and fury ill supplied 
The stream of life's exhausted tide, 

3625 And all too late the advantage came, 

To turn the odds of deadly game ; 
For, while the dagger gleamed on high, 
Reeled soul and sense, reeled brain and eye. 
Down came the blow! but in the heath 

3630 The erring blade found bloodless sheath. 

The struggling foe may now unclasp 
The fainting Chief's relaxing grasp; 
Unwounded from the dreadful close, 
But breathless all, Fitz-James arose. 

. XVII 

3635 He faltered thanks to Heaven for life, 

Redeemed, unhoped, from desperate strife; 

Next on his foe his look he cast, 

Whose every gasp appeared his last; 

In Roderick's gore he dipped the braid, — 

3640 "Poor Blanche! thy wrongs are dearly paid; 

Yet with thy foe must die, or live, 
The praise that faith and valor give." 



[canto v] The Combat 137 

With that he blew a bugle-note, 

Undid the collar from his throat, 

Unbonneted, and by the wave 3545 

Sat down his brow and hands to lave. 

Then faint afar are heard the feet 

Of rushing steeds in gallop fleet ; 

The sounds increase, and now are seen 

Four mounted squires in Lincoln green ; seso 

Two who bear lance, and two who lead 

By loosened rein a saddled steed; 

Each onward held his headlong course, 

And by Fitz- James reined up his horse, — 

With wonder viewed the bloody spot, — sess 

"Exclaim not, gallants! question 1 _c. — 

You, Herbert and Luffness, alight. 

And bind the wounds of yonder knight; 

Let the gray palfrey bear his weight, 

We destined for a fairer freight, 36eo 

And bring him on to Stirling straight ; * 

I will before at better speed, 

To seek fresh horse and fitting weed. 

The sun rides high ; — I must be boune 

To see the archer game at noon ; 3665 

But lightly Bayard clears the lea. — 

De Vaux and Herries, follow me. 

XVIII 

"Stand, Bayard, stand!" — the steed obeyed, 

With arching neck and bended head, 

And glancing eye and quivering ear, 3670 

As if he loved his lord to hear. 

No foot Fitz-James in stirrup stayed, 



138 The Lady of the Lake [canto v] 

No grasp upon the saddle laid, 

But wreathed his left hand in the mane, 

3675 And lightly bounded from the plain, 

Turned on the horse his armed heel, 
And stirred his courage with the steel. 
Bounded the fiery steed in air, 
The rider sat erect and fair, 

3680 Then like a bolt from steel crossbow 

Forth launched, along the plain they go. 
They dashed that rapid torrent through, 
And up Carhonie's hill they flew; 
Still at the gallop pricked the Knight, 

3685 His merry men followed as they might. 

Along thy banks, swift Teith! they ride, 
And in the race they mock thy tide; 
Torry and Lendrick now are past, 
And Deanstown lies behind them cast; 

3690 They rise, the bannered towers of Doune, 

They sink in distant woodland soon ; 
Blair-Drummond sees the hoofs strike fire, 
They sweep like breeze through Ochtertyre; 
They mark just glance and disappear 

3695 The lofty brow of ancient Kier; 

They bathe their coursers' sweltering sides, 
Dark Forth! amid thy sluggish tides, 
And on the opposing shore take ground, 
With plash, with scramble, and with bound. 

3700 Right-hand they leave thy cliffs, Craig-Forth! 

And soon the bulwark of the North, 
Gray Stirling, with her towers and town, 
Upon their fleet career looked down. 



[canto v] The Combat i$q 

xix 

As up the flinty path they strained, 

Sudden his steed the leader reined ; 3705 

A signal to his squire he flung, 

Who instant to his stirrup sprung: — 

"Seest thou, De Vaux, yon woodsman gray, 

Who townward holds the rocky way, 

Of stature tall and poor array? 3710 

Mark'st thou the firm, yet active stride, 

With which he scales the mountain-side? 

Know'st thou from whence he comes, or whom?'' 

"No, by my word; — a burly groom 

He seems, who in the field or chase 3715 

A baron's train would nobly grace — " 

"Out, out, De Vaux! can fear supply, 

And jealousy, no sharper eye? 

Afar, ere to the hill he drew, 

That stately form and step I knew; 3720 

Like form in Scotland is not seen, 

Treads not such step on Scottish green. 

Tis James of Douglas, by Saint Serle! 

The uncle of the banished Earl. 

Away, away, to court, to show 3725 

The near approach of dreaded foe: 

The King must stand upon his guard ; 

Douglas and he must meet prepared." 

Then right-hand wheeled their steeds, and straight 

They won the Castle's postern gate. 3730 

xx 

The Douglas, who had bent his way 
From Cambus-kenneth's abbey gray, 



140 The Lady of the Lake [canto v] 

Now, as he climbed the rocky shelf, 
Held sad communion with himself: — 

3735 "Yes! all is true my fears could frame; 

A prisoner lies the noble Graeme, 
And fiery Roderick soon will feel 
The vengeance of the royal steel. 
I, only I, can ward their fate, — 

3740 God grant the ransom come not late! 

The Abbess hath her promise given, 
My child shall be the bride of Heaven; — 
Be pardoned one repining tear! 
For He who gave her knows how dear, 

3745 How excellent! — but that is by, 

And now my business is — to die.— 
Ye towers ! within whose circuit dread 
A Douglas by his sovereign bled; 
And thou, O sad and fatal mound! 

3750 That oft hast heard the death-axe sound, 

As on the noblest of the land 
Fell the stern headsman's bloody hand, — 
The dungeon, block, and nameless tomb 
Prepare — for Douglas seeks his doom! 

3755 But hark! what blithe and jolly peal 

Makes the Franciscan steeple reel? 
And see! upon the crowded street, 
In motley groups what masquers meet! 
Banner and pageant, pipe and drum, 

3760 And merry morrice : dancers come. 

I guess, by all this quaint array, 
The burghers hold their sports to-day. 
James will be there ; he loves such show, 



[canto v] The Combat zqi 

Where the good yeoman bends his bow, 

And the tough wrestler foils his foe, 3765 

As well as where, in proud career, 

The high-born tilter shivers spear. 

Ill follow to the Castle-park, 

And play my prize; — King James shall mark 

If age has tamed these sinews stark, 3770 

Whose force so oft, in happier days, 

His boyish wonder loved to praise." 

XXI 

The Castle gates were open flung, 

The quivering drawbridge rocked and rung, 

And echoed loud the flinty street 3775 

Beneath the coursers' clattering feet, 

As slowly down the steep descent 

Fair Scotland's King and nobles went, 

While all along the crowded way 

Was jubilee and loud huzza. 3730 

And ever James was bending low 

To his white jennet's saddle-bow, 

Doffing his cap to city dame, 

Who smiled and blushed for pride and shame. 

And well the simperer might be vain, — 3785 

He chose the fairest of the train. 

Gravely he greets each city sire, 

Commends each pageant's quaint attire, 

Gives to the dancers thanks aloud, 

And smiles and nods upon the crowd, 3790 

Who rend the heavens with their acclaims, — 

"Long live the Commons' King, King James!" 

Behind the King thronged peer and knight, 



142 The Lady of the Lake [canto v] 

And noble dame and damsel bright, 
3795 Whose fiery steeds ill brooked the stay 

Of the steep street and crowded way. 
But in the train you might discern 
Dark lowering brow and visage stern; 
There nobles mourned their pride restrained, 
38oo And the mean burgher's joys disdained; 

And chiefs, who, hostage for their clan, 
Were each from home a banished man, 
There thought upon their own gray tower, 
Their waving woods, their feudal power, 
3805 And deemed themselves a shameful part 

Of pageant which they cursed in heart. 

XXII 

Now, in the Castle-park drew out 
Their checkered bands the joyous rout. 
There morricers, with bell at heel 

38io And blade in hand, their mazes wheel; 

But chief, beside the butts, there stand 
Bold Robin Hood and all his band, — 
Friar Tuck with quarterstaff and cowl, 
Old Scathelocke with his surly scowl, 

3815 Maid Marian, fair as ivory bone, 

Scarlet, and Mutch, and Little John; 
Their bugles challenge all that will, 
In archery to prove their skill. 
The Douglas bent a bow of might,— 

3820 His first shaft centred in the white, 

And when in turn he shot again, 
His second split the first in twain. 
From the King's hand must Douglas take 



[canto v] The Combat 143 

A silver dart, the archers' stake; 

Fondly he watched, with watery eye, 3525 

Some answering glance of sympathy, — 

No kind emotion made reply! 

Indifferent as to archer wight, 

The monarch gave the arrow bright. 

XXIII 

Now, clear the ring! for, hand to hand, 3830 

The manly wrestlers take their stand. 

Two o'er the rest superior rose, 

And proud demanded mightier foes, — 

Nor called in vain, for Douglas came. — 

For life is Hugh of Larbert lame; 3835 

Scarce better John of Alloa's fare, 

Whom senseless home his comrades bare. 

Prize of the wrestling match, the King 

To Douglas gave a golden ring, 

While coldly glanced his eye of blue, 3840 

As frozen drop of wintry dew. 

Douglas would speak, but in his breast 

His struggling soul his words suppressed; 

Indignant then he turned him where 

Their arms the brawny yeomen bare, 3845 

To hurl the massive bar in air. 

When each his utmost strength had shown, 

The Douglas rent an earth-fast stone 

From its deep bed, then heaved it high, 

And sent the fragment through the sky 38so 

A rood beyond the farthest mark; 

And still in Stirling's royal park, 

The gray-haired sires, who know the past, 



144 The Lady of the Lake [canto v] 

To strangers point the Douglas-cast, 
3855 And moralize on the decay 

Of Scottish strength in modern day. 

XXIV 

The vale with loud applauses rang, 
The Ladies' Rock sent back the clang. 
The King, with look unmoved, bestowed 

3860 A purse well filled with pieces broad. 

Indignant smiled the Douglas proud, 
And threw the gold among the crowd, 
Who now with anxious wonder scan, 
And sharper glance, the dark gray man; 

3865 Till whispers rose among the throng, 

That heart so free, and hand so strong, 
Must to the Douglas blood belong; 
The old men marked, and shook the head, 
To see his hair with silver spread, 

3870 And winked aside, and told each son 

Of feats upon the English done, 
Ere Douglas of the stalwart hand 
Was exiled from his native land. 
The women praised his stately form, 

3875 Though wrecked by many a winter's storm; 

The youth with awe and wonder saw 
His strength surpassing Nature's law. 
Thus judged, as is their wont, the crowd, 
Till murmurs rose to clamors loud. 

3880 But not a glance from that proud ring 

Of peers who circled round the King 
With Douglas held communion kind, 
Or called the banished man to mind; 



[canto v] The Combat 145 

No, not from those who at the chase 

Once held his side the honored place, 3885 

Begirt his board, and in the field 

Found safety underneath his shield ; 

For he whom royal eyes disown, 

When was his form to courtiers known ! 

XXV 

The Monarch saw the gambols flag, 3890 

And bade let loose a gallant stag, 

Whose pride, the holiday to crown, 

Two favorite greyhounds should pull down, 

That venison free and Bourdeaux wine, 

Might serve the archery to dine. 38S5 

But Lufra, — whom from Douglas' side 

Nor bribe nor threat could e'er divide, 

The fleetest hound in all the North, — 

Brave Lufra saw, and darted forth. 

She left the royal hounds midway, 3900 

And dashing on the an tiered prey, 

Sunk her sharp muzzle in his flank, 

And deep the flowing life-blood drank. 

The King's stout huntsman saw the sport 

By strange intruder broken short, 3905 

Came up, and with his leash unbound 

In anger struck the noble hound. 

The Douglas had endured, that morn, 

The King's cold look, the nobles' scorn, 

And last, and worst to spirit proud, 3010 

Had borne the pity of the crowd ; 

But Lufra had been fondly bred, 

To share his board, to watch his bed, 



146 The Lady of the Lake [canto v] 

And oft would Ellen Lufra's neck 
3915 In maiden glee with garlands deck ; 

They were such playmates that with name 

Of Lufra Ellen's image came. 

His stifled wrath is brimming high, 

In darkened brow and flashing eye ; 
3920 As waves before the bark divide, 

The crowd gave way before his stride ; 

Needs but a buffet and no more, 

The groom lies senseless in his gore. 

Such blow no other hand could deal, 
3925 Though gauntleted in glove of steel 

XXVI 

Then clamored loud the royal train, 
And brandished swords and staves amain. 
But stern the Baron's warning: "Back! 
Back, on your lives, ye menial pack! 

3930 Beware the Douglas. — Yes! behold, 

King James! The Douglas, doomed of old, 
And vainly sought for near and far, 
A victim to atone the war, 
A willing victim, now attends, 

3935 Nor craves thy grace but for his friends. — " 

"Thus is my clemency repaid? 
Presumptuous Lord!" the monarch said: 
"Of thy misproud ambitious clan, 
Thou, James of Bothwell, wert the man, 

3940 The only man, in whom a foe 

My woman -mercy would not know; 
But shall a Monarch's presence brook 
Injurious blow and haughty look? — 



[canto v] The Combat 147 

What ho ! the Captain of our Guard ! 

Give the offender fitting ward. — 3945 

Break off the sports!" — for tumult rose, 

And yeomen 'gan to bend their bows, — 

"Break off the sports!" he said and frowned, 

"And bid our horsemen clear the ground." 

XXVII 

Then uproar wild and misarray 3950 

Marred the fair form of festal day. 

The horsemen pricked among the crowd, 

Repelled by threats and insult loud; 

To earth are borne the old and weak, 

The timorous fly, the women shriek; 3955 

With flint, with shaft, with staff, with bar, 

The hardier urge tumultuous war. 

At once round Douglas darkly sweep 

The royal spears in circle deep, 

And slowly scale the pathway steep, 3950 

While on the rear in thunder pour 

The rabble with disordered roar. 

With grief the noble Douglas saw 

The Commons rise against the law. 

And to the leading soldier said : 3965 

"Sir John of Hyndford, 't was my blade 

That knighthood on thy shoulder laid ; 

For that good deed permit me then 

A word with these misguided men. — 

XXVIII 

"Hear, gentle friends, ere yet for me 3970 

Ye break the bands of fealty. 
My life, my honor, and my cause, 



148 The Lady of the Lake [canto v] 

I tender free to Scotland's laws. 
Are these so weak as must require 

3975 The aid of your misguided ire? 

Or if I suffer causeless wrong, 
Is then my selfish rage so strong, 
My sense of public weal so low, 
That, for mean vengeance on a foe, 

3980 Those cords of love I should unbind 

Which knit my country and my kind? 
no! Believe, in yonder tower 
It will not soothe my captive hour, 
To know those spears our foes should dread 

3985 For me in kindred gore are red: 

To know, in fruitless brawl begun, 
For me that mother wails her son, 
For me that widow's mate expires, 
For me that orphans weep their sires, 

3990 That patriots mourn insulted laws, 

And curse the Douglas for the cause. 
O let your patience ward such ill, 
And keep your right to love me still !" 

XXIX 

The crowd's wild fury sunk again 
3995 In tears, as tempests melt in rain. 

With lifted hands and eyes, they prayed 

For blessings on his generous head 

Who for his country felt alone, 

And prized her blood beyond his own. 
4000 Old men upon the verge of life 

Blessed him who stayed the civil strife; 

And mothers held their babes on high, 



[canto v] The Combat 149 

The self -devoted Chief to spy, 

Triumphant over wrongs and ire, 

To whom the prattlers owed a sire. 4005 

Even the rough soldier's heart was moved; 

As if behind some bier beloved, 

With trailing arms and drooping head, 

The Douglas up the hill he led, 

And at the Castle's battled verge, 4010 

With sighs resigned his honored charge. 

xxx 

The offended Monarch rode apart, 

With bitter thought and swelling heart, 

And would not now vouchsafe again 

Through Stirling streets to lead his train. 4015 

"O Lennox, who would wish to rule 

This changeling crowd, this common fool? 

Hear'st thou," he said, "the loud acclaim 

With which they shout the Douglas name? 

With like acclaim the vulgar throat 4020 

Strained for King James their morning note; 

With like acclaim they hailed the day 

When first I broke the Douglas sway; 

And like acclaim would Douglas greet 

If he could hurl me from my seat. 4025 

Who o'er the herd would wish to reign, 

Fantastic, fickle, fierce, and vain? 

Vain as the leaf upon the stream, 

And fickle as a changeful dream; 

Fantastic as a woman's mood, 4030 

And fierce as Frenzy's fevered blood. 

Thou many-headed monster-thing, 

who would wish to be thy king! — 



ijo The Lady of the Lake [canto v] 

xxxi 
"But soft! what messenger of speed 

4035 Spurs hitherward his panting steed? 

I guess his cognizance afar — 
What from our cousin, John of Mar?" 
"He prays, my liege, your sports keep bound 
Within the safe and guarded ground; 

4040 For some foul purpose yet unknown, — 

Most sure for evil to the throne, — 
The outlawed Chieftain, Roderick Dhu, 
Has summoned his rebellious crew; 
T is said, in James of Bothwell's aid 

4045 These loose banditti stand arrayed. 

The Earl of Mar this morn from Doune, 
To break their muster marched, and soon 
Your Grace will hear of battle fought; 
But earnestly the Earl besought, 

4050 Till for such danger he provide, 

With scanty train you will not ride." 

XXXII 

"Thou warn'st me I have done amiss, — 
I should have earlier looked to this; 
I lost it in this bustling day. — 

4055 Retrace with speed thy former way; 

Spare not for spoiling of thy steed, 
The best of mine shall be thy meed. 
Say to our faithful Lord of Mar, 
We do forbid the intended war; 

4oeo Roderick this morn in single fight 

Was made our prisoner by a knight, 
And Douglas hath himself and cause 



[canto v] The Combat 151 

Submitted to our kingdom s ±aws 

The tidings of their leaders lost 

Will soon dissolve the mountain host, oeo 

Nor would we that the vulgar feel, 

For their Chief's crimes, avenging steel. 

Bear Mar our message, Braco, fly!" 

He turned his steed, — "My liege, I hie, 

Yet ere I cross this lily lawn 4070 

I fear the broadswords will be drawn." 

The turf the flying courser spurned, 

And to his towers the King returned. 

XXXIII 

111 with King James's mood that day 

Suited gay feast and minstrel lay ; 4075 

Soon were dismissed the courtly throng, 

And soon cut short the festal song. 

Nor less upon the saddened town 

The evening sunk in sorrow down. 

The burghers spoke of civil jar, 4oso 

Of rumored feuds and mountain war, 

Of Moray, Mar, and Roderick Dhu, 

All up in arms; — the Douglas too, 

They mourned him pent within the hold, 

"Where stout Earl William was of old. — " 4085 

And there his word the speaker staid, 

And finger on his lip he laid, 

Or pointed to his dagger blade. 

But jaded horsemen, from the west 

At evening to the Castle pressed, 4090 

And busy talkers said they bore 

Tidings of fight on Katrine's shore; 



152 The Lady of the Lake [canto v] 

At noon the deadly fray begun, 
And lasted till the set of sun. 
5 Thus giddy rumor shook the town, 

Till closed the Night her pennons brown. 



CANTO SIXTH 

I 
The sun, awakening, through the smoky air 

Of the dark city casts a sullen glance, 
Rousing each caitiff to his task of care, 

Of sinful man the sad inheritance; 4100 

Summoning revellers from the lagging dan^e, 

Scaring the prowling robber to his den; 
Gilding on battled tower the warder's lance, 

And warning student pale to leave his pen, 
And yield his drowsy eyes to the kind nurse of men. 4105 

What various scenes, and O! what scenes of woe, 

Are witnessed by that red and struggling beam! 
The fevered patient, from his pallet low, 

Through crowded hospital beholds its stream; 
The ruined maiden trembles at its gleam, 4110 

The debtor wakes to thought of gyve and jail, 
The love-lorn wretch starts from tormenting dream ; 

The wakeful mother, by the glimmering pale, 
Trims her sick infant's couch, and soothes his feeble wail. 

11 
At dawn the towers of Stirling rang 4115 

With soldier-step and weapon-clang, 
While drums with rolling note foretell 
Relief to weary sentinel. 
Through narrow loop and casement barred, 
The sunbeams sought the Court of Guard, 4120 

[153] 



154 The Lady of the Lake [canto vi] 

And, struggling with the smoky air, 

Deadened the torches' yellow glare. 

In comfortless alliance shone 

The lights through arch of blackened stone, 

4125 And showed wild shapes in garb of war, 

Faces deformed with beard and scar, 
All haggard from the midnight watch, 
And fevered with the stern debauch; 
For the oak table's massive board, 

4130 Flooded with wine, with fragments stored, 

And beakers drained, and cups o'er thrown, 
Showed in what sport the night had flown. 
Some, weary, snored on floor and bench; 
Some labored still their thirst to quench; 

4135 Some, chilled with watching, spread their hands 

O'er the huge chimney's dying brands, 
While round them, or beside them flung, 
At every step their harness rung. 

in 

These drew not for their fields the sword, 
4140 Like tenants of a feudal lord, 

Nor owned the patriarchal claim 

Of Chieftain in their leader's name; 

Adventurers they, from far who roved, 

To live by battle which they loved. 
4145 There the Italian's clouded face, 

The swarthy Spaniard's there you trace; 

The mountain-loving Switzer there 

More freely breathed in mountain -air; 

The Fleming there despised the soil, 
4150 That paid so ill the laborer's toil ; 

Their rolls showed French and German name; 



[canto vi] The Guard-room 155 

And merry England's exiles came, 

To share, with ill-concealed disdain, 

Of Scotland's pay the scanty gain. 

All brave in arms, well trained to wield 4155 

The heavy halberd, brand, and shield; 

In camps licentious, wild, and bold; 

In pillage fierce and uncontrolled ; 

And now, by holytide and feast, 

From rules of discipline released. 4ieo 

IV 

They held debate of bloody fray, 

Fought 'twixt Loch Katrine and Achray. 

Fierce was their speech, and 'mid their words, 

Their hands oft grappled to their swords; 

Nor sunk their tone to spare the ear 4105 

Of wounded comrades groaning near, 

Whose mangled limbs and bodies gored 

Bore token of the mountain sword, 

Though, neighboring to the Court of Guard, 

Their prayers and feverish wails were heard , — 4170 

Sad burden to the ruffian joke, 

And savage oath by fury spoke! — 

At length up started John of Brent, 

A yeoman from the banks of Trent; 

A stranger to respect or fear, 4175 

In peace a chaser of the deer, 

In host a hardy mutineer, 

But still the boldest of the crew 

When deed of danger was to do. 

He grieved that day their games cut short, 4iso 

And marred the dicer's brawling sport, 



1 56 The Lady of the Lake [canto vi] 

And shouted loud, " Renew the bowl! 
And, while a merry catch I troll, 
Let each the buxom chorus bear, 
5 Like brethren of the brand and spear/ ' 



SOLDIER S SONG 

Our vicar still preaches that Peter and Poule 
Laid a swinging long curse on the bonny brown bowl. 
That there's wrath and despair in the jolly black jack 
And the seven deadly sins in a flagon of sack ; 
1190 Yet whoop, Barnaby! off with the liquor, 
Drink upsees out, and a fig for the vicar. 

Our vicar he calls it damnation to sip 
The ripe ruddy dew of a woman's dear lip, 
Says that Beelzebub lurks in her kerchief so sly, 
4195 And Apolly on shoots darts from her merry black eye ; 
Yet whoop, Jack! kiss Gillian the quicker, 
Till she bloom like a rose, and a fig for the vicar. 

Our vicar thus preaches, — and why should he not? 
For the dues of his cure are the placket and pot; 
4200 And 't is right of his office poor laymen to lurch 
Who infringe the domains of our good Mother Church. 
Yet whoop, bully boys! off with your liquor, 
Sweet Marjorie's the word, and a fig for the vicar. 

vi 
The warder's challenge, heard without, 
4205 Stayed in mid-roar the merry shout. 

A soldier to the portal went,— 
"Here is old Bertram, sirs, of Ghent; 



[canto vi] The Guard-room 157 

And — beat for jubilee the drum! 

A maid and minstrel with him come." 

Bertram, a Fleming, gray and scarred, 4210 

Was entering now the Court of Guard, 

A harper with him, and, in plaid 

All muffled close, a mountain maid, 

Who backward shrunk to 'scape the view 

Of the loose scene and boisterous crew. 4215 

"What news?" they roared: — "I only know, 

From noon till eve we fought with foe, 

As wild and as untamable 

As the rude mountains where they dwell; 

On both sides store of blood is lost, 4220 

Nor much success can either boast." — 

"But whence thy captives, friend? such spoil 

As theirs must needs reward thy toil. 

Old dost thou wax, and wars grow sharp; 

Thou now hast glee-maiden and harp! 4225 

Get thee an ape, and trudge the land, 

The leader of a juggler band." 

VII 

"No, comrade; — no such fortune mine. 

After the fight these sought our line, 

That aged harper and the girl, 4230 

And, having audience of the Earl, 

Mar bade I should purvey them steed, 

And bring them hitherward with speed. 

Forbear your mirth and rude alarm, 

For none shall do them shame or harm. — " 4235 

"Hear ye his boast?" cried John of Brent, 

Ever to strife and jangling bent; 



1^8 The Lady of the Lake [canto vi] 

1 'Shall he strike doe beside our lodge, 
And yet the jealous niggard grudge 

4240 To pay the forester his fee? 

I'll have my share howe'er it be, 
Despite of Moray, Mar, or thee." 
Bertram his forward step withstood; 
And, burning in his vengeful mood, 

4245 Old Allan, though unfit for strife, 

Laid hand upon his dagger-knife; 
But Ellen boldly stepped between, 
And dropped at once the tartan screen: — 
So, from his morning cloud, appears 

42oo The sun of May through summer tears. 

The savage soldiery, amazed, 
As on descended angel gazed; 
Even hardy Brent, abashed and tamed, 
Stood half admiring, half ashamed. 

VIII 

4255 Boldly she spoke: "Soldiers, attend! 

My father was the soldier's friend, 

Cheered him in camps, in marches led, 

And with him in the battle bled. 

Not from the valiant or the strong 
42w Should exile's daughter suffer wrong." 

Answered De Brent, most forward still 

In every feat or good or ill : 

"I shame me of the part I played; 

And thou an outlaw's child, poor maid! 
42«5 An outlaw I by forest laws, 

And merry Needwood knows the cause. 

Poor Rose, — if Rose be living now,"— 



[canto vi] The Guard-room 159 

He wiped his iron eye and brow, — 

"Must bear such age, I think, as thou. — 

Hear ye, my mates! I go to call 4270 

The Captain of our watch to hall : 

There lies my halberd on the floor 

And he that steps my halberd o'er, 

To do- the maid injurious part, 

My shaft shall quiver in his heart! 4275 

Beware loose speech, or jesting rough: 

Ye all know John de Brent. Enough." 

IX 

Their Captain came, a gallant young, — 

Of Tullibardine's house he sprung, — 

Nor wore he yet the spurs of knight ; 4280 

Gay was his mien, his humor light, 

And, though by courtesy controlled, 

Forward his speech, his bearing bold. 

The high-born maiden ill could brook 

The scanning of his curious look 4285 

And dauntless eye: — and yet, in sooth, 

Young Lewis was a generous youth ; 

But Ellen's lovely face and mien, 

111 suited to the garb and scene, 

Might lightly bear construction strange, 4290 

And give loose fancy scope to range. 

"Welcome to Stirling towers, fair maid! 

Come ye to seek a champion's aid, 

On palfrey white, with harper hoar, 

Like errant damosel of yore ? 4295 

Does thy high quest a knight require, 

Or may the venture suit a squire?" 



160 The Lady of the Lake [canto vi] 

Her dark eye flashed ; — she paused and sighed : — 
"O what have I to do with pride! — 

4300 Through scenes of sorrow, shame, and strife, 

A suppliant for a father's life, 
I crave an audience of the King. 
Behold, to back my suit, a ring, 
The royal pledge of grateful claims, 

4305 Given by the Monarch to Fitz-James." 



The signet ring young Lewis took 
With deep respect and altered look, 
And said: — "This ring our duties own; 
And pardon, if to worth unknown, 

4310 In semblance mean obscurely veiled, 

Lady, in aught my folly failed. 
Soon as the day flings wide his gates, 
The King shall know what suitor waits. 
Please you meanwhile in fitting bower 

43J5 Repose you till his waking hour; 

Female attendance shall obey 
Your hest, for service or array. 
Permit I marshal you the way." 
But, ere she followed, with the grace 

4320 And open bounty of her race, 

She bade her slender purse be shared 
Among the soldiers of the guard. 
The rest with thanks their guerdon took, 
But Brent, with shy and awkward look, 

4325 On the reluctant maiden's hold 

Forced bluntly back the proffered gold:— 
"Forgive a haughty English heart, 



[canto vi] The Guard-room 161 

And O, forget its ruder part! 

The vacant purse shall be my share, 

Which in my barret-cap I'll bear, 4330 

Perchance, in jeopardy of war, 

Where gayer crests may keep afar." 

With thanks, — 't was all she could, — the maid 

His rugged courtesy repaid. 

XI 

When Ellen forth with Lewis went, 4335 

Allan made suit to John of Brent : — 

1 'My lady safe, let your grace 

Give me to see my master's face! 

His minstrel I, — to share his doom 

Bound from the cradle to the tomb. 4340 

Tenth in descent, since first my sires 

Waked for his noble house their lyres, 

Nor one of all the race was known 

But prized its weal above their own. 

With the Chief's birth begins our care; 4345 

Our harp must soothe the infant heir, 

Teach the youth tales of fight, and grace 

His earliest feat of field or chase ; 

In peace, in war, our rank we keep, 

We cheer his board, we soothe his sleep, 4350 

Nor leave him till we pour our verse — 

A doleful tribute! — o'er his hearse. 

Then let me share his captive lot ; 

It is my right, — deny it not!" 

1 'Little we reck," said John of Brent, 4355 

1 'We Southern men, of long descent; 

Nor wot we how a name — a word — 



162 The Lady of the Lake [canto vi] 

Makes clansmen vassals to a lord: 
Yet kind my noble landlord's part, — 

4360 God bless the house of Beaudesert! 

And but I loved to drive the deer 
More than to guide the laboring steer, 
I had not dwelt an outcast here. 
Come, good old Minstrel, follow me; 

4365 Thy Lord and Chieftain shalt thou see." 

XII 

Then, from a rusted iron hook, 

A bunch of ponderous keys he took, 

Lighted a torch, and Allan led 

Through grated arch and passage dread. 

4370 Portals they passed, where, deep within, 

Spoke prisoner's moan, and fetters' din; 
Through rugged vaults, where, loosely stored, 
Lay wheel, and axe, and headsman's sword, 
And many a hideous engine grim, 

4375 For wrenching joint and crushing limb, 

By artists formed who deemed it shame 
And sin to give their work a name. 
They halted at a low -browed porch, 
And Brent to Allan gave the torch, 

4380 While bolt and chain he backward rolled, 

And made the bar unhasp its hold. 
They entered: — 'twas a prison-room 
Of stern security and gloom, 
Yet not a dungeon ; for the day 

4385 Through lofty gratings found its way, 

And rude and antique garniture 
Decked the sad walls and oaken floor , 



[canto vi] The Guard-room 163 

Such as the rugged days of old 

Deemed fit for captive noble's hold. 

"Here," said De Brent, "thou may 'st remain 4390 

Till the Leech visit him again. 

Strict is his charge, the warders tell, 

To tend the noble prisoner well." 

Retiring then the bolt he drew, 

And the lock's murmurs growled anew. 4395 

Roused at the sound, from lowly bed 

A captive feebly raised his head; 

The wondering Minstrel looked, and knew — 

Not his dear lord, but Roderick Dhu! 

For, come from where Clan-Alpine fought, 4400 

They, erring, deemed the Chief he sought. 

XIII 

As the tall ship, whose lofty prore 

Shall never stem the billows more, 

Deserted by her gallant band, 

Amid the breakers lies astrand, — 4405 

So on his couch lay Roderick Dhu! 

And oft his fevered limbs he threw 

In toss abrupt, as when her sides 

Lie rocking in the advancing tides, 

That shake her frame with ceaseless beat, 44io 

Yet cannot heave her from her seat; — 

O! how unlike her course at sea! 

Or his free step on hill and lea ! — 

Soon as the Minstrel he could scan, — 

"What of thy lady? — of my clan? — 4415 

My mother? — Douglas? — tell me all! 

Have they been ruined in my fall? 



164 The Lady of the Lake [canto vi] 

Ah, yes! or wherefore art thou here! 

Yet speak, — speak boldly, — do not fear." — 

4420 For Allan, who his mood well knew, 

Was choked with grief and terror too. — 
' 'Who fought ? — who fled ? — Old man, be brief ; — 
Some might, — for they had lost their Chief. 
Who basely live? — who bravely died?" 

4425 "O, calm thee, Chief!" — the Minstrel cried, 

"Ellen is safe;"— "For that thank Heaven!" 
"And hopes are for the Douglas given; — 
The Lady Margaret, too, is well ; 
And, for thy clan, — on field or fell, 

4430 Has never harp of minstrel told 

Of combat fought so true and bold. 
Thy stately Pine is yet unbent, 
Though many a goodly bough is rent/' 

xiv 

The Chieftain reared his form on high, 

4435 And fever's fire was in his eye; 

But ghastly, pale, and livid streaks 
Checkered his swarthy brow and cheeks. 
"Hark, Minstrel! I have heard thee play, 
With measure bold on festal day, 

4440 In yon lone isle, — again where ne'er 

Shall harper play or warrior hear ! — 
That stirring air that peals on high, 
O'er Dermid's race our victory. — 
Strike it! — and then, — for well thou canst, — 

4445 Free from thy minstrel-spirit glanced, 

idling me the picture of the fight, 
When met my clan the Saxon might. 



[canto vi] The Guard-room 165 

I'll listen, till my fancy hears 
The clang of swords, the crash of spears! 
These grates, these walls, shall vanish then 4450 
For the fair field of fighting men, 
And my free spirit burst away, 
As if it soared from battle fray." 
The trembling Bard with awe obeyed, — 
Slow on the harp his hand he laid ; 4455 

But soon remembrance of the sight 
. He witnessed from the mountain's height, 
With what old Bertram told at night, 
Awakened the full power of song, 
And bore him in career along ; — 44eo 

As shallop launched on river's tide, 
That slow and fearful leaves the side, 
But, when it feels the middle stream, 
Drives downward swift as lightning's beam. 

xv 

BATTLE OF BEAL' AN DUINE 

"The Minstrel came once more to view 4465 

The eastern ridge of Ben venue, 
For ere he parted he would say 
Farewell to lovely Loch Achray — 
Where shall he find, in foreign land, 
So lone a lake, so sweet a strand! — 4470 

There is no breeze upon the fern, 
No ripple on the lake, 

Upon her eyry nods the erne, 
* The deer has sought the brake ; 

The small birds will not sing aloud, 4475 



166 The Lady of the Lake [canto vi] 

The springing trout lies still, 
So darkly glooms yon thunder-cloud, 
That swathes, as with a purple shroud, 
Benledi's distant hill. 
4480 Is it the thunder's solemn sound 

That mutters deep and dread, 
Or echoes from the groaning ground 

The warrior's measured tread? 
Is it the lightning's quivering glance 
4485 That on the thicket streams, 

Or do they flash on spear and lance 
The sun's retiring beams? — 
I see the dagger-crest of Mar, 
I see the Moray's silver star, 
4490 Wave o'er the cloud of Saxon war, 

That up the lake comes winding far! 
To hero boune for battle-strife, 

Or bard of martial lay, 
'T were worth ten years of peaceful life 
4495 One glance at their array! 

xvi 

'Their light-armed archers far and near 

Surveyed the tangled ground, 
Their centre ranks, with pike and spear, 

A twilight forest frowned, 
45oo Their barded horsemen in the rear 

The stern battalia crowned. 
No cymbal clashed, no clarion rang, 

Still were the pipe and drum ; 
Save heavy tread, and armor's clang, 
4505 The sullen march was dumb. 



[canto vi] The Guard-room 167 

There breathed no wind their crests to shake, 

Or wave their flags abroad ; 
Scarce the frail aspen seemed to quake, 

That shadowed o'er their road. 
Their vaward scouts no tidings bring, 4510 

Can rouse no lurking foe, 
Nor spy a trace of living thing, 

Save when they stirred the roe ; 
The host moves, like a deep-sea wave, 
Where rise no rocks its pride to brave, 4515 

High-swelling, dark, and slow. 
The lake is passed, and now they gain 
A narrow and a broken plain, 
Before the Trosachs' rugged jaws; 
And here the horse and spearmen pause, 4520 

While, to explore the dangerous glen, 
Dive through the pass the archer-men. 

XVII 

"At once there rose so wild a yell 

Within that dark and narrow dell, 

As all the fiends from heaven that fell 4525 

Had pealed the banner-cry of hell ! 

Forth from the pass in tumult driven, 
Like chaff before the wind of heaven, 

The archery appear: 
For life ! for life ! their flight they ply — 4530 

And shriek, and shout, and battle-cry, 
And plaids and bonnets waving high, 
And broadswords flashing to the sky, 

Are maddening in the rear. 
Onward they drive in dreadful race, 4535 



168 The Lady of the Lake [canto vi] 

Pursuers and pursued, 
Before that tide of flight and chase, 
How shall it keep its rooted place, 

The spearmen's twilight wood? — 
4540 'Down, down/ cried Mar, 'your lances down! 

Bear back both friend and foe!' — 
Like reeds before the tempest's frown, 
That serried grove of lances brown 

At once lay levelled low ; 
4545 And closely shouldering side to side, 

The bristling ranks the onset bide. — 
'We'll quell the savage mountaineer, 

As their Tinchel cows the game ! 
They come as fleet as forest deer, 
4550 We'll drive them back as tame.' 

XVIII 

"Bearing before them, in their course, 
The relics of the archer force, 
Like wave with crest of sparkling foam, 
Right onward did Clan-Alpine come. 
4555 Above the tide, each broadsword bright 

Was brandishing like beam of light, 

Each targe was dark below; 
And with the ocean's mighty swing, 
When heaving to the tempest's wing, 
4560 They hurled them on the foe. 

I heard the lance's shivering crash, 
As when the whirlwind rends the ash; 
I heard the broadsword's deadly clang, 
As if an hundred anvils rang! 
4565 But Moray wheeled his rearward rank 



[canto vi] The Guard-room i6g 

Of horsemen on Clan-Alpine's flank, — 

'My banner-man, advance! 
I see/ he cried, 'their column shake. 
Now, gallants! for your ladies' sake, 

Upon them with the lance!' — 4570 

The horsemen dashed among the rout, 

As deer break through the broom ; 
Their steeds are stout, their swords are out, 

They soon make lightsome room. 
Clan-Alpine's best are backward borne — 4575 

Where, where was Roderick then! 
One blast upon his bugle-horn 
Were worth a thousand men. 
And refluent through the pass of fear 

The battle's tide was poured ; 4580 

Vanished the Saxon's struggling spear, 

Vanished the mountain sword. 
As Bracklinn's chasm, so black and steep, 

Receives her roaring linn, 
As the dark caverns of the deep 4535 

Suck the wild whirlpool in, 
So did the deep and darksome pass 
Devour the battle's mingled mass; 
None linger now upon the plain, 
Save those who ne'er shall fight again. 4590 

XIX 

"Now westward rolls the battle's din, 

That deep and doubling pass within. — 

Minstrel, away ! the work of fate 

Is bearing on; its issue wait, 

Where the rude Trosachs' dread defile 4595 



lyo The Lady of the Lake [canto vi] 

Opens on Katrine's lake and isle. 
Gray Ben venue I soon repassed, 
Loch Katrine lay beneath me cast. 
The sun is set; — the clouds are met, 
i The lowering scowl of heaven 

An inky hue of livid blue 
To the deep lake has given; 
Strange gusts :: wind from mountain glen 
Swept : er the lake, then sunk again. 
5 I heeded not the eddying surge. 

Mine eye but saw the Trosachs' gorge, 
Mine ear but heard that sullen sound, 
Which like an earthquake shook the ground, 
And spoke the stern and desperate strife 
• That parts not but with parting life. 

Seeming, to minstrel-ear, to toll 
The dirge of many a passing soul. 

Nearer it comes — the dim-wood glen 
The martial flood disgorged again, 
5 But not in mingled tide 

The plaided warriors :: the North 
High on the mountain thunder forth 

And overhang its side, 
While by the Lake below appears 
o The darkening cloud of Saxon spears. 

At weary bay each shattered band, 
Eying the:: foemen, sternly stand; 
[Their banners stream like tattered sail, 
That flings its fragments to the gale, 
% And broken arms and disarray 

rked the fell havoc of the day. 



[canto vi] The Guard-room 171 

XX 

" Viewing the mountain's ridge askance, 
The Saxons stood in sullen trance, 
Till Moray pointed with his lance, 

And cried, 'Behold yon isle! — 4630 

See ! none are left to guard its strand 
But women weak, that wring the hand: 
'T is there of yore the robber band 

Their booty wont to pile ; — 
My purse, with bonnet-pieces store, 4635 

To him will swim a bow-shot o'er, 
And loose a shallop from the shore. 
Lightly we'll tame the war-wolf then, 
Lords of his mate, and brood, and den.' 
Forth from the ranks a spearman sprung, 4640 

On earth his casque and corselet rung, 

He plunged him in the wave : — 
All saw the deed, — the purpose knew, 
And to their clamors Benvenue 

A mingled echo gave ; 4645 

The Saxons shout, their mate to cheer, 
The helpless females scream for fear. 
And yells for rage the mountaineer. 
*T was then, as by the outcry riven, 
Poured down at once the lowering heaven ; 4eso 
A whirlwind swept Loch Katrine's breast, 
Her billows reared their snowy crest. 
Well for the swimmer swelled they high, 
To mar the Highland marksman's eye; 
For round him showered, mid rain and hail, 4655 
The vengeful arrows of the Gael. 



Ij2 The Lady of the Lake [canto vi] 

In vain. — He nears the isle — and lo! 
His hand is on a shallop's bow. 
Just then a flash of lightning came, 

4660 It tinged the waves and strand with flame; 

I marked Duncraggan's widowed dame, 
Behind an oak I saw her stand, 
A naked dirk gleamed in her hand: — 
It darkened, — but amid the moan 

4665 Of waves I heard a dying groan ; — 

Another flash! — the spearman floats 
A weltering corse beside the boats, 
And the stern matron o'er him stood, 
Her hand and dagger streaming blood. 

XXI 

4670 " 'Revenge! revenge!' the Saxons cried, 

The Gaels' exulting shout replied. 
Despite the elemental rage, 
Again they hurried to engage ; 
But, ere they closed in desperate fight, 

4675 Bloody with spurring came a knight, 

Sprung from his horse, and from a crag, 
Waved 'twixt the hosts a milk-white flag. 
Clarion and trumpet by his side 
Rung forth a truce-note high and wide, 

4680 While, in the Monarch's name, afar 

An herald's voice forbade the war, 
For Bothwell's lord, and Roderick bold 
Were both, he said, in captive hold. — " 
But here the lay made sudden stand, 

4685 The harp escaped the Minstrel's hand ! 

Oft had he stolen a glance, to spy 



[canto vi] The Guard-room 273 

How Roderick brooked his minstrelsy: 

At first, the Chieftain, to the chime, 

With lifted hand kept feeble time; 

That motion ceased, — yet feeling strong 4690 

Varied his look as changed the song; 

At length, no more his deafened ear 

The minstrel melody can hear ; 

His face grows sharp, — his hands are clenched, 

As if some pang his heart-strings wrenched; 4695 

Set are his teeth, his fading eye 

Is sternly fixed on vacancy ; 

Thus, motionless and moanless, drew 

His parting breath stout Roderick Dhu! — 

Old Allan-bane looked on aghast, 4700 

While grim and still his spirit passed; 

But when he saw that life was fled, 

He poured his wailing o'er the dead. 

XXII 
LAMENT 

"And art thou cold and lowly laid, 

Thy foeman's dread, thy people's aid, 4705 

Breadalbane's boast, Clan-Alpine's shade! 

For thee shall none a requiem say? — 

For thee, who loved the minstrel's lay, 

For thee, of Bothwell's house the stay, 

The shelter of her exiled line, 4710 

E'en in this prison-house of thine, 

I'll wail for Alpine's honored Pine! 

"What groans shall yonder valleys fill! 
What shrieks of grief shall rend yon hill ! 



IJ4 The Lady of the Lake [canto vi] 

4715 What tears of burning rage shall thrill, 

When mourns thy tribe thy battles done, 
Thy fall before the race was won, 
Thy sword ungirt ere set of sun ! 
There breathes not clansman of thy line, 

4720 But would have given his life for thine. 

O, woe for Alpine's honored Pine! 

"Sad was thy lot on mortal stage! — 
The captive thrush may brook the cage, 
The prisoned eagle dies for rage. 

4725 Brave spirit, do not scorn my strain ! 

And, when its notes awake again, 
Even she, so long beloved in vain, 
Shall with my harp her voice combine, 
And mix her woe and tears with mine, 

4730 To wail Clan-Alpine's honored Pine." 

XXIII 

Ellen the while, with bursting heart, 
Remained in lordly bower apart, 
Where played, with many-colored gleams, 
Through storied pane the rising beams. 

4375 In vain on gilded roof they fall, 

And lightened up a tapestried wall, 
And for her use a menial train 
A rich collation spread in vain. 
The banquet proud, the chamber gay, 

4740 Scarce drew one curious glance astray ; 

Or if she looked, 't was but to say, 
With better omen dawned the day 
In that lone isle, where waved on high 



[canto vi] The Guard-room 175 

The dun-deer's hide for canopy ; 

Where oft her noble father shared 4745 

The simple meal her care prepared, 

While Lufra, crouching by her side, 

Her station claimed with jealous pride, 

And Douglas, bent on woodland game, 

Spoke of the chase to Malcolm Graeme, 4750 

Whose answer, oft at random made, 

The wandering of his thoughts betrayed. 

Those who such simple joys have known 

Are taught to prize them when they're gone. 

But sudden, see, she lifts her head, 4755 

The window seeks with cautious tread. 

What distant music has the power 

To win her in this woful hour? 

'T was from a turret that o'er hung 

Her latticed bower, the strain was sung. 4700 

XXIV 
LAY OF THE IMPRISONED HUNTSMAN 

"My hawk is tired of perch and hood, 

My idle greyhound loathes his food, 

My horse is weary of his stall, 

And I am sick of captive thrall. 

I wish I were as I have been, 4765 

Hunting the hart in forest green, 

With bended bow and bloodhound free, 

For that's the life is meet for me. 

"I hate to learn the ebb of time 

From yon dull steeple's drowsy chime, 4770 

Or mark it as the sunbeams crawl, 



ij6 The Lady of the Lake [canto vi] 

Inch after inch, along the wall. 
The lark was wont my matins ring, 
The sable rook my vespers sing ; 
4775 These towers, although a king's they be, 

Have not a hall of joy for me. 

"No more at dawning morn I rise, 
And sun myself in Ellen's eyes, 
Drive the fleet deer the forest through, 
4780 And homeward wend with evening dew; 

A blithesome welcome blithely meet, 
And lay my trophies at her feet, 
While fled the eve on wing of glee, — 
That life is lost to love and me!" 

xxv 

4785 The heart-sick lay was hardly said, 

The listener had not turned her head, 

It trickled still, the starting tear, 

When light a footstep struck her ear, 

And Snowdoun's graceful Knight was near. 

4790 She turned the hastier, lest again 

The prisoner should renew his strain. 
"O welcome, brave Fitz-James!" she said; 
"How may an almost orphan maid 
Pay the deep debt — " "O say not so! 

4795 To me no gratitude you owe. 

Not mine, alas! the boon to give, 
And bid thy noble father live ; 
I can but be thy guide, sweet maid, 
With Scotland's King thy suit to aid. 

48oo No tyrant he, though ire and pride 



[canto vi] The Guard-room 177 

May lay his better mood aside. 
Come, Ellen, come! — 't is more than time, 
He holds his court at morning prime." 
With beating heart, and bosom wrung, 
As to a brother's arm she clung. 4805 

Gently he dried the falling tear, 
- And gently whispered hope and cheer ; 
Her faltering steps half led, half stayed, 
Through gallery fair and high arcade, 
Till at his touch its wings of pride 48io 

A portal arch unfolded wide. 

XXVI 

Within l t was brilliant all and light, 

A thronging scene of figures bright ; 

It glowed on Ellen's dazzled sight, 

As when the setting sun has given 48i5 

Ten thousand hues to summer even, 

And from their tissue, fancy frames 

Aerial knights and fairy dames. 

Still by Fitz-James her footing staid ; 

A few faint steps she forward made, 4820 

Then slow her drooping head she raised, 

And fearful round the presence gazed ; 

For him she sought who owned this state, 

The dreaded Prince whose will was fate ! — 

She gazed on many a princely port 4825 

Might well have ruled a royal court ; 

On many a splendid garb she gazed,— 

Then turned bewildered and amazed, 

For all stood bare ; and in the room 

Fitz-James alone wore cap and plume. 4330 

12 



ij8 The Lady of the Lake [canto vi] 

To him each lady's look was lent, 
On him each courtier's eye was bent; 
Midst furs and silks and jewels sheen, 
He stood, in simple Lincoln green, 
4835 The centre of the glittering ring, — 

And Snowdoun's Knight is Scotland's King! 

XXVII 

As wreath of snow on mountain-breast 
Slides from the rock that gave it rest, 
Poor Ellen glided from her stay, 
4840 And at the Monarch's feet she lay; 

No word her choking voice commands, — 
She showed the ring, — she clasped her hands. 

0, not a moment could he brook, 

The generous Prince, that suppliant look! 

4845 Gently he raised her, — and, the while, 

Checked with a glance the circle's smile; 
Graceful, but grave, her brow he kissed, 
And bade her terrors be dismissed : — 
"Yes, fair; the wandering poor Fitz-James 

4850 The fealty of Scotland claims. 

To him thy woes, thy wishes, bring; 
He will redeem his signet ring. 
Ask naught for Douglas; — yester even, 
His Prince and he have much forgiven; 

4855 Wrong hath he had from slanderous tongue, 

1, from his rebel kinsmen, wrong. 
We would not, to the vulgar crowd, 
Yield what they craved with clamor loud ; 
Calmly we heard and judged his cause, 

4860 Our council aided and our laws. 



[canto vi] The Guard-room ijg 

I stanched thy father's death-feud stern 

With stout De Vaux and gray Glencairn ; 

And BothwelFs Lord henceforth we own 

The friend and bulwark of our throne. — 

But, lovely infidel, how now? 4865 

What clouds thy misbelieving brow ? 

Lord James of Douglas, lend thine aid; 

Thou must confirm this doubting maid. ,, 

XXVIII 

Then forth the noble Douglas sprung, 

And on his neck his daughter hung. 4370 

The Monarch drank, that happy hour, 

The sweetest, holiest draught of Power, — 

When it can say with godlike voice, 

Arise, sad Virtue, and rejoice! 

Yet would not James the general eye 4875 

On nature's raptures long should pry; 

He stepped between — "Nay, Douglas, nay, 

Steal not my proselyte away ! 

The riddle 't is my right to read, 

That brought this happy chance to speed. 4sso 

Yes, Ellen, when disguised I stray 

In life's more low but happier way, 

'T is under name which veils my power, 

Nor falsely veils, — for Stirling's tower 

Of yore the name of Snowdoun claims, mo 

And Normans call me James Fitz-James. 

Thus watch I o'er insulted laws, 

Thus learn to right the injured cause." 

Then, in a tone apart and low, — 

"Ah, little traitress! none must know 4390 



180 The Lady of the Lake [canto vi] 

What idle dream, what lighter thought, 
What vanity full dearly bought, 
Joined to thine eye's dark witchcraft, drew 
My spell-bound steps to Benvenue 

4895 In dangerous hour, and all but gave 

Thy Monarch's life to mountain glaive!" 
Aloud he spoke: "Thou still dost hold 
That little talisman of gold, 
Pledge of my faith, Fitz-James's ring, — 

4900 What seeks fair Ellen of the King?" 

XXIX 

Full well the conscious maiden guessed 
He probed the weakness of her breast; 
But with that consciousness there came 
A lightening of her fears for Graeme, 

4905 And more she deemed the Monarch's ire 

Kindled 'gainst him who for her sire 
Rebellious broadsword boldly drew; 
And, to her generous feeling true, 
She craved the grace of Roderick Dhu. 

4910 ' 'Forbear thy suit: — the King of kings 

Alone can stay life's parting wings. 
I know his heart, I know his hand, 
Have shared his cheer, and proved his brand ;— 
My fairest earldom would I give 

4915 To bid Clan-Alpine's Chieftain live! — 

Hast thou no other boon to crave ? 
No other captive friend to save?" 
Blushing, she turned her from the King, 
And to the Douglas gave the ring, 

4920 As if she wished her sire to speak 



[canto vi] The Guard-room 181 

The suit that stained her glowing cheek. 

"Nay, then, my pledge has lost its force, 

And stubborn justice holds her course. 

Malcolm, come forth!" — and, at the word, 

Down kneeled the Graeme to Scotland's Lord. 4925 

"For thee, rash youth, no suppliant sues, 

From thee may Vengeance claim her dues, 

Who, nurtured underneath our smile, 

Hast paid our care by treacherous wile, 

And sought amid thy faithful clan 4930 

A refuge for an outlawed man,. 

Dishonoring thus thy loyal name. — 

Fetters and warder for the Graeme !" 

His chain of gold the King unstrung, 

The links o'er Malcolm's neck he flung, 4935 

Then gently drew the glittering band, 

And laid the clasp on Ellen's hand. 



Harp of the North, farewell! The hills grow dark, 

On purple peaks a deeper shade descending; 
In twilight copse the glow-worm lights her spark, 4940 

The deer, half -seen, are to the covert wending. 
Resume thy wizard elm ! the fountain lending, 

And the wild breeze, thy wilder minstrelsy; 
Thy numbers sweet with nature's vespers blending, 

With distant echo from the fold and lea, 4945 

And herd-boy's evening pipe, and hum of housing bee. 

Yet, once again, farewell, thou Minstrel Harp ! 

Yet, once again, forgive my feeble sway, 
And little reck I of the censure sharp 

May idly cavil at an idle lay. 4950 



182 The Lady of the Lake [canto vi] 

Much have I owed thy strains on life's long way, 
Through secret woes the world has never known, 

When on the weary night dawned wearier day, 
And bitterer was the grief devoured alone. — 
4955 That I o'erlive such woes, Enchantress ! is thine own. 

Hark! as my lingering footsteps slow retire, 

Some Spirit of the Air has waked thy string! 
'T is now a seraph bold, with touch of fire, 

'T is now the brush of Fairy's frolic wing. 
4960 Receding now, the dying numbers ring 

Fainter and fainter down the rugged dell ; 
And now the mountain breezes scarcely bring 

A wandering witch-note of the distant spell — 
And now, 't is silent all ! — Enchantress, fare thee well ! 



SCOTT'S Tales of a Grandfather tells the story of Scottish 
history in a very interesting way for children. On this 
account the historical setting of this edition of The Lady 
of the Lake is largely an abridgment of Scott's own narration 
of the life of James V. The editor has taken the liberty of 
changing a few words and sentences here and there for the 
sake of brevity and connection, but marks of quotation 
indicate with sufficient clearness how nearly Scott has been 
allowed to tell the story in his own language. 

F. A. Barbour. 



A*fti#JTJrbK'%#A!4r fcfer 



THE HISTORICAL! 
INTRODUCTION 



SCOTLAND AND ENGLAND 

FOR hundreds of years the history of Scotland and England 
is one long story of strife and warfare, and the most 
thrilling tales of Scottish history are connected with the 
struggles between them . Then it was that Sir William Wallace 
and Robert Bruce performed those daring deeds that have 
made their names so dear to Scotland. Supported by power- 
ful barons like Douglas and Randolph, and by the sturdy 
yeomanry and peasantry of Scotland, Bruce defeated 
Edward II of England at the famous Battle of Bannockburn 
(June 24, 13 14) and won back the national independence. 
Of Wallace and Bruce Scott writes: "And therefore most 
just it is, that while the country of Scotland retains any 
recollection of its history, the memory of those brave war- 
riors and faithful patriots should be remembered with honor 
and gratitude." 

CAUSES OF INTERNAL STRIFE IN SCOTLAND 

Apart from the wars with England, there was great 
internal strife in Scotland itself. The nobles were very 
powerful and almost independent of the king's authority. 
"They were almost constantly engaged in quarrels with each 
other and often with the king himself." Sometimes they 
settled their difficulties among themselves that they might 
unite against the king. "On all occasions they were disposed 
for war rather than peace." 

THE DEADLY FEUD 

There was also the deadly feud, as it was called. "When 
two men of different families quarreled, and the one injured 
or slew the other, the relatives of the deceased, or wronged 
person, knowing that the laws could afford them no redress, 
set about obtaining revenge by putting to death some rela- 
tion of the individual who had done the injury, without 
regarding how innocent the subject of their vengeance might 
have been of the original cause of offense. Then the others, 



1. Scott's Tales of a Grandfather, chap. x. 
description of the Battle of Bannockburn. 

[184] 



This chapter contains a 



Historical Introduction 185 

in their turn, endeavored to execute a similar revenge upon 
some one of the family who had first received the injury; 
and thus the quarrel was carried on from father to son, and 
often lasted betwixt families that were neighbors and ought 
to have been good friends, for several generations, during 
which time they were said to be at deadly feud with each 
other." 

THE HIGHLANDERS AND BORDERERS OF 
SCOTLAND 

The causes of private crime and public disorder existed 
even in the provinces where the king resided. "But there 
were two great divisions of the country; the Highlands, 
namely, and the Borders, which were so much wilder and 
more barbarous than the others, that they might be said to 
be altogether without law; and, although they were nomi- 
nally subjected to the King of Scotland, yet when he desired 
to execute, any justice in either of those great districts, he 
could not do so otherwise than by marching there in person, 
at the head of a strong body of forces, and seizing upon the 
offenders and putting them to death with little or no form of 
trial." 

These Highlanders of Scotland, so called from the rocky 
and mountainous character of the country which they 
inhabited in the northern part of the kingdom, spoke a 
language (Gaelic) quite different from that of the Lowland 
Scots. Their dress also was peculiar to themselves. "They 
wore a plaid, or mantle of frieze, or of a striped stuff called 
tartan, one end of which being wrapped round the waist 
formed a short petticoat which descended to the knee, while 
the rest was folded round them like a sort of cloak. They 
had buskins made of raw hide; and those who could get a 
bonnet, had that covering for their heads, though many never 
wore one during their whole lives, but had only their own 
shaggy hair tied back by a leathern strap. They went 
always armed, carrying bows and arrows, large swords, 
called claymores, which they wielded with both hands, 
poleaxes, and daggers for close fight. For defense, they had 
a round wooden shield, or target, stuck full of nails; and their 
great men had shirts of mail, not unlike to the flannel shirts now 
worn, only composed of links of iron instead of threads of 
worsted; but the common men were so far from desiring 
armor that they sometimes threw their plaids away, and 
fought in their shirts, which they wore very long and large 
after the Irish fashion. 

"This part of the Scottish nation was divided into clans, 
that is, tribes. The persons composing each of these clans 



186 The Lady of the Lake 

believed themselves all to be descended, at some distant 
period, from the same common ancestor, whose name they 
usually bore. Thus, one tribe was called MacDonald, which 
signifies the sons of Donald; another MacGregor, or the sons 
of Gregor; MacNeil, the sons of Neil, and so on. Every one 
of these tribes had its own separate chief, or commander, 
whom they supposed to be the immediate representative of 
the great father of the tribe from whom they were all 
descended. To this chief they paid the most unlimited 
obedience, and willingly followed his commands in peace or 
war; not caring although, in doing so, they transgressed the 
laws of the king, or went into rebellion against the king him- 
self. Each tribe lived in a valley, or district of the mountains, 
separated from the others ; and they often made war upon, 
and fought desperately with each other. But with Low- 
landers they were always at war. They differed from them 
in language, in dress, and in manners; and they believed that 
the richer grounds of the low country had formerly belonged 
to their ancestors, and therefore they made incursions upon 
it, and plundered it without mercy. The Lowlanders, on the 
other hand, equal in courage and superior in discipline, gave 
many severe checks to the Highlanders; and thus there was 
always constant war or discord between them, though 
natives of the same country." 

"Upon the whole, you can easily understand that 
these Highland clans, living among such high and inaccessible 
mountains and paying obedience to no one save their own 
chiefs, should have been very instrumental in disturbing the 
tranquillity of the kingdom of Scotland." 

The people of the Border Counties, lying opposite to 
England, greatly resembled the Highlanders. They made 
war "sometimes on the English, sometimes on each other, 
and sometimes on the more civilized country which lay be- 
hind them." Unlike the Highlanders, who fought always on 
foot, the Borderers, as they were called, were all horsemen. 
"Being accustomed to fight against the English, they were 
also much better disciplined than the Highlanders. But in 
point of obedience to the Scottish government, they were not 
much different from the clans of the north. 

" Military officers, called Wardens, were appointed along 
the Borders to keep these unruly people in order; but as 
these Wardens were generally themselves chiefs of clans, 
they did not do much to mend the evil. Robert the Bruce 
committed a great part of the charge of the Borders to the 
good Lord James of Douglas, who fulfilled his trust with 
great fidelity. But the power which the family of Douglas 
thus acquired, proved afterwards, in the hands of his suc- 
cessors, very dangerous to the crown of Scotland." 



Historical Introduction i8y 

JAMES V OF SCOTLAND 
The James Fitz-James of The Lady of the Lake 

Not quite two hundred years after the victory of Bruce 
at Bannockburn, the English in turn were victorious at the 
Battle of Flodden Field. Not only did James IV of Scotland 
TTj g perish here, but with him so many noblemen also 

f . . f that scarcely a family of distinction in Scotland 
capuvny did nQt guffer serious loss The Battle of Flodden 

Field "is justly considered as one of the most calamitous 
events in Scottish history." 

James IV had married Margaret, daughter of Henry VII 
of England, and their only son, James V, was at this time not 
quite two years of age. The boy grew up in the midst of 
troublous times and saw Scotland filled with the cruelty and 
bloodshed of civil strife. This should be taken into account 
as a partial explanation of the severity of his own reign a few 
years later. 

Soon after the death of the king, Margaret married 
Douglas, Earl of Angus, an ambitious but unpopular young 
lord. The marriage was an unhappy one, leading to a 
divorce for the queen and to long continued strife for Scot- 
land. The queen tried to make her son regent when he was 
but twelve years of age. Douglas not only defeated this, but 
also rose to the supreme authority in Scotland and obtained 
possession of the person of the king. He transacted all 
business in the name of James, but really by his own author- 
ity, and became in all respects the Regent of Scotland, though 
without assuming the name. 

The young king was now fourteen years of age, and he 
became so restive under his virtual captivity that he sought 
above all things to free himself from the power of the earl. 
Many of the nobles tried to aid him, and several battles were 
fought in his behalf. On one occasion when James was 
eagerly hoping for the victory of his friends, George Douglas, 
brother of Angus, turned upon him fiercely and addressed 
him in language which the young king never forgot nor 
forgave: "Your Grace need not think to escape us; if our 
enemies had hold of you on one side, and we on the other, we 
would tear you in pieces before we would let you go." 

Such language embittered the spirit of James and made 

him more determined than ever to secure his liberty. Finally, 

under the pretense of preparing for a hunting trip, and with 

tt. the aid of two faithful servants, he secured 

horses from the stables of Douglas and, galloping 

p all night, reached the strong castle of Stirling, 

which, through the influence of his mother, had been placed 
in the hands of a governor who was friendly to James's inter- 



i88 The Lady of the Lake 

ests. The young king at once proclaimed that any one of 
the name of Douglas who should approach within twelve 
miles of his person, or who should presume to meddle with 
the administration of the government, would be declared a 
traitor. Soon afterwards he assembled around him the 
numerous nobility who envied the power of Angus, or who 
had suffered injury at his hands, and in open Parliament 
accused him of treason, declaring that he had never been sure 
of his life while in his power. A sentence of forfeiture was 
therefore passed against the Earl of Angus, and he was driven 
into exile, with all his friends and kinsmen. It was not 
unnatural, perhaps, that James should retain during his 
whole life an implacable resentment against the Douglases, 
and that he never permitted one of the name to settle in 
Scotland while he lived. 

"Freed from the stern control of the Douglas family, 
James V now began to exercise the government in person, 
and displayed most of the qualities of a wise and good prince. 
Thp char- ^ e was k an dsome i n his person and resembled 
acter of his k* s father in the fondness for military exercises, 
. and the spirit of chivalrous honor which James IV 

£ loved to display. He also inherited his father's 

love of justice and his desire to establish and enforce wise 
and equal laws, which should protect the weak against the 
oppression of the great. It was easy enough to make laws, 
but to put them in vigorous exercise was of much greater 
difficulty; and in his attempt to accomplish this laudable 
purpose, James often incurred the ill-will of the more power- 
ful nobles. He was a well-educated and accomplished man; 
and, like his ancestor, James I, was a poet and musician. . 

"It must be added, that when provoked, he was unrelenting 
even to cruelty; for which he had some apology, considering 
the ferocity of the subjects over whom he reigned. But, on 
the whole, James V was an amiable man and a good sover- 
eign. 

"His first care was to bring the Borders of Scotland to 
some degree of order." These, it will be remembered, were 
inhabited by clans who obeyed no orders save those which 
were given by their chiefs, and who often occasioned wars 
between England and Scotland. It doubtless seemed to 
James that any plan was justifiable which should check such 
disorder and lawlessness, while on their part the Borderers 
had grown up to this sort of life, looked upon it as the natural 
course of society, and consequently had no apprehension of 
the king's displeasure against them. 

James accomplished his purpose by stratagem. After 
assembling an army, he invited the Borderers to send in their 
dogs as if he were going on a hunting expedition. Then as 



Historical Introduction i8q 

he approached their castles one after another, and they came 
out to meet and entertain him, he hung them and their 
followers without warning and without mercy. He doubtless 
justified the severity and stratagem of such measures by the 
end to be accomplished. At any rate "such were the effects 
of the terror struck by these general executions, that James was 
said to have made 'the rush bush keep the cow;' that is to 
say, that even in this lawless part of the country, men dared 
no longer make free with property, and cattle might remain 
on their pastures unwatched." 

Perhaps the Borderers were more easily deceived by James 
because of his known fondness for hunting. "When he pur- 
sued that amusement in the Highlands, he used to wear the 
peculiar dress of that country, having a long and wide High- 
land shirt, and a jacket of tartan velvet, with plaid hose, and 
everything else corresponding." He also had a custom, like 
his father James IV, "of going about the country disguised 
as a private person, in order to hear complaints which might 
not otherwise reach his ears, and, perhaps, that he might enjoy 
amusements which he could not have partaken of in his avowed 
royal character." When in disguise he called himself the 
Goodman (the tenant) of Ballengiech— Ballengiech being a 
steep pass which leads down behind the castle of Stirling. 
His adventures upon some of these excursions throw an 
interesting light upon his character. On one occasion he fell 
into a quarrel with some gypsies. They assaulted him near 
a narrow bridge on which with drawn sword he was valiantly 
defending himself. "There was a poor man thrashing corn 
in a barn near by, who came out on hearing the noise of the 
scuffle, and seeing one man defending himself against numbers, 
gallantly took the king's part with his flail, to such good pur- 
pose that the gypsies were obliged to fly. The husbandman 
took the king into the barn, brought him a towel and water 
to wash the blood from his face and hands, and finally 
walked with him a little way toward Edinburgh, in case he 
should be again attacked." Upon inquiry the king learned 
that the laborer's name was John Howieson, that he was a 
bondsman on a farm belonging to the King of Scotland, and 
that his highest wish would be gratified could he but be 
proprietor of the farm on which he wrought as a laborer. 
James told him that he himself was a poor man who had an 
appointment about the palace of the king and that if he 
would come to see him next Sunday he would show him the 
royal apartments. 

John put on his best clothes, was admitted to the palace, 
and found the Goodman of Ballengiech in the same disguise 
which he had formerly worn. After he had been shown 
through the apartments of the palace, "at length James 



igo The Lady of the Lake 

asked his visitor if he should like to see the king; to which 
John replied, nothing would delight him so much, if he 
could do so without giving offense. The Goodman of Bal- 
lengiech, of course, undertook that the king would not be 
angry. 'But,' said John, 'how am I to know his grace from 
the nobles who will be all about him?' — 'Easily,' replied his 
companion ; 'all the others will be uncovered — the king alone 
will wear his hat or bonnet.' 

"So speaking, King James introduced the countryman into 
the great hall, which was rilled by the nobility and officers 
of the crown. John was a little frightened and drew close to his 
attendant; but was still unable to distinguish the king. 'I told 
you that you should know him by his wearing his hat,' said his 
conductor. 'Then,' said John, after he had again looked 
around the room, 'it must be either you or me, for all but us two 
are bareheaded.' " The king laughed at his fancy and made 
him a present of the farm which he had wished to possess. 

"The reign of James V was not alone distinguished by his 
personal adventures and pastimes, but is honorably remem- 
bered on account of wise laws made for the government of 
the people." " He instituted what is called the College of Jus- 
tice, being the Supreme Court of Scotland in civil affairs." 
He used great diligence in improving his navy, caused 
accurate surveys to be made of the coast, harbors, and road- 
steads of his kingdom, encouraged the sciences, cultivated the 
fine arts, and remained at peace with England until very near 
the close of his reign. The war which finally broke out 
between James and Henry VIII of England was due to 
differences in religious belief. James favored the Catholics, 
Henry the Protestants, and the struggle between them was a 
part of the Reformation in England and Scotland. Many of 
James's nobles were out of sympathy with the cruel perse- 
cutions of Protestants which he allowed in Scotland, and at 
a critical moment in his war with Henry, they deserted his 
standard. This deep disgrace filled the king with despair and 
with desolation of spirit. "He shut himself up in his 
palace refusing to listen to consolation. A burning fever, 
the consequence of his grief and shame, seized on the 
unfortunate monarch. When they brought him tidings 
that his wife had given birth to a daughter, ... he only 
replied: ... 'It (meaning the crown) came with a lass, and it 
will go with a lass.'. . He spoke little more, but turned his face 
to the wall, . . . and died of the most melancholy of all diseases, 
a broken heart." He was but thirty-one years of age. Could 
his dying vision but have pierced the veil of the future and 
seen the son of his infant daughter ruling over the united 
kingdoms of England and Scotland, what a load would have 
been lifted from his burdened heart! 




A BIOGRAPHICAL 
SKETCH 




SIR WALTER SCOTT 

When James V was held captive by the Earl of 
Angus, one of the most famous Scottish 
Borderers who sought to effect his release was 
Sir Walter Scott of Buccleuch, chief of a powerful clan, 
and a man of great courage and military prowess. 

He sought to intercept the Earl of Angus 
Ancestry i n ne of his military expeditions and to 

rescue James from his captivity. "Sir," 
said the deceptive Angus to the king, "yonder comes 
Buccleuch with the Border thieves of Teviotdale and 
Liddesdale to interrupt your Grace's passage. I vow 
to God they shall either fight or fly." And fight they 
did, the brave Sir Walter with a thousand men, 
against the superior forces of the earl. The skirmish 
was unsuccessful, but James never forgot his gratitude 
to Scott. This was on July 25, 1526. 

The incident is of peculiar interest in connection 
with James V, for almost three hundred years after- 
ward another Sir Walter Scott wrote a beautiful and 
romantic poem, The Lady of the Lake, in which the 
name of James V was made a household word for 
generations to come. This later Sir Walter, poet 
and novelist, was born at Edinburgh, August 15, 177 1. 
His father was a writer to the Signet, or an Edinburgh 
solicitor, and his mother, Anne Rutherford, was a 
daughter of a professor of medicine in the University 
of Edinburgh. Both, however, were descended from 
famous Border families, and there flowed in the boy's 

[191J 



IQ2 The Lady of the Lake 

veins all the boldness of spirit and all the love of 

adventure which belonged to this Border ancestry. 

When an infant but eighteen months old, a teething 

fever left him with his right leg paralyzed. Outdoor 

life with all possible exercise was deemed the only 

remedy, and the boy was sent to Sandy 

cMldhood Knowe, the farm of his Grandfather Scott, 

near the river Tweed and the ruined tower 

of Smailholme. Here among the hills the shepherd 

who had him in charge used to lay him beside the 

sheep, and his earliest recollections were associated 

with the grazing flocks, and with the rugged crags 

about him. 

1 'It was a barren scene and wild, 
Where naked cliffs were rudely piled ; 
But ever and anon between 
Lay velvet tufts of loveliest green ; 
And well the lonely infant knew 
Recesses where the wall-flower grew, 
And honeysuckle loved to crawl 
Up the low crag and ruin'd wall. ,,1 
Even the storms of the hills inspired the boy with 
delight rather than fear, and there is a story of his 
being forgotten one day among the knolls when a 
thunderstorm came on. When his aunt ran out to 
bring him home she found him lying on his back, 
clapping his hands at the lightning and crying out, 
"Bonny ! bonny!" at every flash. Soon he learned to 
creep, to walk, and finally to run about. But best of 
all, his uncle gave him a Shetland pony scarcely as 
large as a Newfoundland dog. At once the two 
became inseparable companions. The pony ran 
freely into the house and took food from his master's 
hand. Lame as he was, the boy soon learned to ride 
well and went galloping over the hills much to the 
distress of his anxious aunt. These early days upon 
his grandfather's farm laid the foundation, doubtless, 
for the robust health of Scott's youth and manhood. 

i. Scott's Marmion, Introduction to Canto III. 



A Biographical Sketch 193 

Next in importance to the restoration of health 
were the songs and tales of his grandmother and the 
books read to him by his Aunt Janet. Eagerly the 
young lad listened to tales of his ancestor and of many 
a hero of the Robin Hood type. Long passages read 
by his aunt were easily learned by heart. The ballad 
of Hardyknute was an especial favorite and he used 
to go shouting it about the house until the parish 
clergyman in his visits was wont impatiently to 
exclaim, "One may as well speak in the mouth of 
a cannon as where that child is." And this early 
delight in stories and romance grew with his child- 
hood. In his fifth year, spent at the city of Bath to 
try its waters for his shrunken limb, his most delight- 
ful recollection is that his uncle took him to hear one 
of Shakespeare's plays, As You Like It. The witchery 
of the scene remained in his memory for years, but he 
was so scandalized at the quarrel between Orlando 
and his brother in the first scene that he screamed 
out in excitement, "A 'n't they brothers?" He lived, 
he says later, to find that a quarrel between brothers 
was a very natural event. 

But perhaps a more striking illustration of his 
imagination, and of his eager interest in scenes of 
danger, is given in Mrs. Cockburn's visit to the Edin- 
burgh home when Walter was but six years of age. 
She found him reading to his mother a poem descrip- 
tive of a shipwreck. "His passion rose with the 
storm," she says. "He lifted his eyes and hands. 
'There's the mast gone,' says he. 'Crash it goes! — 
they will all perish!' After his agitation, he turns to 
me, That is too melancholy,' says he; 'I had better 
read you something more amusing.' " Mrs. Cock- 
burn had shown special interest in his reading, and 
when he was taken to bed at night "he told his aunt 
he liked that lady. 'What lady?' says she. 
'Why, Mrs. Cockburn; for I think she is a virtuoso 
like myself.' 'Dear Walter,' says Aunt Jenny, 

13 



IQ4 The Lady of the Lake 

'what is a virtuoso?' 'Don't ye know? Why, it's 
one who wishes to and will know every thing V ' It was 
a childish remark, to be sure, but it indicated the 
eagerness with which his mind drank in all accounts 
of danger and adventure. It was but two years later 
that he became acquainted with an old soldier at 
Prestonpans on the seacoast. The old veteran had 
been through the German wars and immediately 
young Walter's ears were open to all his stories of 
military life. Here, too, George Constable, a friend 
of his father's, told him many a story of Shakes- 
peare's characters. Thus it was that the boy's love 
of romantic adventure was stimulated on every side 
both by his reading and his companionship. 

It was most natural that such a lad should enter 
the Edinburgh grammar and high school with but 
small taste for the routine studies of the regular 
course, and we are not surprised to read 
days° t ^ iat k e never to °k high rank in his pre- 

scribed studies. Never an accurate scholar 
in the formal study of language, he surpassed his 
fellows in his appreciation of Latin literature, and in 
his English reading he had far outstripped them. 
"I was never a dunce, nor thought to be so," he 
writes of himself, "but an incorrigibly idle imp, who 
was always longing to do something else than what 
was enjoined him." But this something else gave 
him rare popularity with his fellows. His never- 
failing good nature, his courage in all their boyish 
contests, and his inexhaustible fund of stories which 
he told them by the hour, these gave his companion- 
ship a charm which no mere scholarship could bestow 
— a charm felt by men in later years as by the boys 
in his early youth. "Idle imp," too, he had called 
himself, but he had been far from idle. Whatever 
he could lay his hands upon, history, poetry, voyages, 
travels, fairy tales, stories, and romances — all had 
been read and absorbed without effort. He had a 



A Biographical Sketch 195 

wonderful memory also for whatever pleased his fancy 
and could recite long passages of poetry with perfect 
ease. Concerning this rare gift he used to tell the 
story of an old Borderer who, in conversation with 
a minister, said: "No, sir, I have no command of 
my memory. It only retains what hits my fancy; 
and probably, sir, if you were to preach to me for 
two hours, I would not be able when you finished to 
remember a word you had been saying." 

Of this period of his life Scott writes in his auto- 
biography: ''I left the high school, therefore, with a 
great quantity of general information, ill arranged, 
indeed, and collected without system, yet deeply 
impressed upon my mind; readily assorted by my 
power of connexion and memory, and gilded, if I may 
be permitted to say so, by a vivid and active imagi- 
nation." "My appetite for books," he adds, "was as 
ample and indiscriminating as it was indefatigable, 
and I since have had too frequently reason to repent 
that few ever read so much, and to so little purpose." 
Yet the very range of his reading, extending so far 
beyond the prescribed studies of the school, made up 
the most important part of his education. Little 
did the lad or his teachers dream that this indis- 
criminate learning would one day be the inexhaustible 
storehouse from which a great poet and novelist 
would draw his materials. 

His preparation for college was completed by a half 
year of study at Kelso, one of the most beautiful 
villages of Scotland. Situated at the junction of the 
Tweed and the Teviot rivers, renowned in song, the 
ruins of an ancient abbey and of Roxborough Castle 
near at hand, Kelso, with its natural surroundings, 
greatly intensified the boy's love of nature, of history, 
and of traditional legends. Speaking of the grand 
features of the landscape around him, he writes: 
"The historical incidents, or traditional legends con- 
nected with many of them, gave to my admiration a 



iq6 The Lady of the Lake 

sort of intense impression of reverence, which at times 
made my heart feel too big for its bosom. From this 
time the love of natural beauty, more especially when 
combined with ancient ruins, or remains of our 
fathers' piety or splendor, became with me an insati- 
able passion, which, if circumstances had permitted, 
I would willingly have gratified by traveling over half 
the globe." 

Leaving such scenery, Scott entered upon his 
routine college course at Edinburgh with much the 
same spirit that had actuated him in grammar and 

high school. Small progress was made in 
the law G-reek and mathematics, but more in 

history, ethics, out-of-the-way reading, 
and, as his father wished him to be a lawyer, in civil 
and municipal law. In May, 1786, when he was about 
fifteen years of age, the college studies were dropped 
and he entered his father's law office to begin the 
routine drudgery of preparing for a profession. The 
picture appeals to our imagination : a rollicking, fun- 
loving boy, fond of nature and romance, trying 
through love and respect for his father to busy him- 
self in the musty books of a law office. The result 
might have been foreseen. While he labored at his 
writing with rare industry at times — copying on one 
occasion 120 folio pages (fourteen or fifteen hours 
of very hard work) with no interval for food or rest — 
the copy-money was spent upon the circulating 
library and the theater. His desk was covered with 
books of fiction, which were his supreme delight. A 
friend of his boyhood, John Irving, was in an office 
near by, and the boys, who were supposed to be 
studying law, fell to composing romances for each 
other's amusement. These were rehearsed to each 
other during their long walks, and the habit, con- 
tinued for several years, had no small influence, Scott 
thinks, in turning his imagination "to the chivalrous 
and romantic in poetry and prose." 



A Biographical Sketch igy 

But it was no idle enjoyment of exciting literature 
that prompted the youth; rather such a passionate 
love of the adventurous and romantic, as had upon it 
the stamp of genius. He was quite willing to face 
hard -work in order to extend his knowledge. He 
attended a class in Italian twice a week that he might 
delve in the romantic lore of that language, reviewed 
French for a similar reason, and fastened, he says, 
like a tiger, upon every collection of old songs or 
romances which chance threw in his way. Even 
when confined to his room through the breaking of a 
blood vessel his characteristic amusement was to sit 
up in bed arranging shells, seeds, and pebbles so as to 
represent encountering armies in line of battle. 

The apprenticeship in his father's law office 
extended over a period of five years. Some acquaint- 
ance with the law was acquired, habits of routine 
Excursions industry were formed, but the years were 
in the far more fruitful in quite another direction. 

Highlands His father had numerous clients among the 
Highlanders, and in the ordinary discharge of business 
young Walter was sent on occasional trips into the 
Highlands. He has left on record the almost childish 
delight which he took in various excursions of this 
kind on horseback, and it was in one of these visits 
that he caught his first view of Loch Katrine and the 
romantic scenery of The Lady of the Lake. But not 
only was his love of nature deeply intensified ; better 
still, he came into direct contact with the Highlanders 
themselves. All interest in legal business quickly 
gave way to the fascination of their home life, thei* 
festivities, their ballads, and their stories of Border 
warfare. Long journeys afoot with genial compan- 
ions became now of frequent occurrence, Scott himself 
always the leader of the group, with his love of fun 
and with the stories which never failed. In spite of 
his lameness, thirty miles a day — from five o'clock 
in the morning until eight in the evening — was no 



iq8 The Lady of the Lake 

unusual journey, the tramps being continued some- 
times for a week at a time. On one occasion the 
pocket money gave out and he lived for a day on hips 
and haws and an occasional drink of milk at a cottage 
door. "I only wished I had been as good a player on 
the flute as poor George Primrose in the Vicar of 
Wakefield," he remarked to his father upon his return. 
"If I had his art, I should like nothing better than to 
tramp like him from cottage to cottage over the world. ' ' 
"I doubt," said the grave Clerk to the Signet, "I 
greatly doubt, sir, you were born for nae better 
than a gangrel scrape gut" Little did the disgusted 
father imagine that this touch of Highland life, like 
the reading in romance and history, was to enrich 
the pages of the greatest novelist of Scotland. "He 
was makin' himsel', a' the time," said one of his com- 
panions, "but he didna ken maybe what he was 
about till years had passed; at first he thought o' 
little, I dare say, but the queerness and the fun." 

After completing his studies Scott practised law 
some fourteen years, but his interest in the profession 
was lukewarm and his income proportionate to his 
The cot- interest. Fortunately, however, he was 
tage at made sheriff of Selkirkshire in 1799, and 
Lasswade a f ew years later a clerk of session at 
Edinburgh. The income from these two offices 
yielded him eventually about £1,600. a year, and for 
twenty-five years gave him a comfortable support. 
In 1797 he married Miss Charlotte Carpenter, a 
beautiful young French woman whom he met while 
traveling in England. Soon after their marriage the 
young people rented a pretty little cottage at Lass- 
wade, on the Esk, about six miles from their Edin- 
burgh home, and here for six years their summers 
were spent in simple domestic happiness. 

It will be remembered that at six years of age 
Scott had called himself a virtuoso — one who wishes 
to know and will know everything. At ten, his col- 



A Biographical Sketch iqq 

lection of ballads filled several volumes. Through 
his high school and college days, and his appren- 
ticeship and practice at law, his interest in romantic 
lore had never flagged. Through his mother's 
acquaintance he had met and mingled with 
the most cultivated society of Edinburgh. In his 
practice of law and attendance at court as clerk of 
session, he had had opportunity to observe human 
life in widest range — its motives, ambitions, and 
crimes. About the time of his marriage, too, he 
became quartermaster of a body of volunteer cavalry 
in Scotland. Seated upon his powerful horse, 
Lenore, his enthusiasm made him the life of the daily 
drill, while his habitual good humor, and his ready 
joke, made him the center of attraction for the entire 
corps. This acquaintance with life on many sides 
was a most valuable supplement to his wide and 
varied reading. And now this rich equipment and 
the natural genius of Scott were stimulated by the 
blessings and responsibilities of a happy home life. 
"It was here," says Lockhart, referring to the Lass- 
wade cottage "that when his warm heart was beating 
with young and happy love, and his whole mind and 
spirit were nerved by new motives for exertion — it 
was here, that in the ripened glow of manhood he 
seems to have first felt something of his real strength, 
and poured himself out in those splendid original 
ballads which were at once to fix his name." 

It was seemingly a mere accident that turned his 
attention to literary labor. Through his interest in 
the romantic literature of Germany, he had mastered 
the German language, and at the suggestion of a 
friend had translated Btlrger's Lenore, and the Gdtz 
von Berlichingen of Goethe. Why should he not do 
for ancient Border manners what Goethe had done for 
the ancient feudalism of the Rhine? The thought 
was a happy one. The materials were at hand — the 
fruit of all those excursions into Lasswade — and The 



200 The Lady of the Lake 

Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, published in 1802, 
was his first great literary success. Shortly after- 
ward, Lady Dalkeith — subsequently wife of the Duke 
of Buccleuch, head of the house of Scott — suggested 
that Sir Walter write a poem on the legend of a hob- 
goblin named Gilpin Horner. The chivalrous desire 
to please the lady through the singing of Scottish 
songs by an aged minstrel, was exactly suited to 
Scott's genius, and The Lay of the Last Minstrel, pub- 
lished in 1805, became widely popular at once and 
established his literary fame. Marmion followed in 
1808, The Lady of the Lake in 18 10, and Sir Walter's 
name was now heralded over Scotland as the greatest 
of living poets. 

A few words as to the reasons for his popularity: 
The public had become wearied with the uninteresting 
themes and the too elaborate style of the poetry of the 

eighteenth century. Fine-spun reasoning 
popufaritv a ^ out ^ie was not so interesting as simple 

and natural touch with life itself. Here 
was a poet who could be read and understood at the 
first reading, whose imagination set forth with fresh- 
ness and vigor the rugged border life of Scotland. 
The narratives were interesting. The four-foot verse 
moved rapidly. In the descriptions of battles par- 
ticularly it had the tramp of soldiers in it. "I am 
sensible," says Scott of himself, "that if there be any- 
thing good about my poetry or prose either, it is 
a hurried frankness of composition, which pleases 
soldiers, sailors, and young people of bold and active 
dispositions." He was more than right. His verse 
sang its way into the minds of both children and old 
people. The poet Campbell tells an interesting story 
of two old men, complete strangers, who were passing 
each other on a dark London night. One of them 
happened to be repeating to himself the last lines of 
the account of the Battle of Flodden Field in Marmion, 
"Charge, Chester, charge." Suddenly out of the dark- 



A Biographical Sketch 201 

ness came a reply, "On, Stanley, on," and the two 
old men finished the story of Marmion between them, 
took off their hats to each other, and parted laughing. 

The vivid pictures of The Lady of the Lake stamped 
themselves on men's minds in a similar way. An 
intellectual farmer friend of Scott's, dining with him 
one day, heard the poet read the first canto of this 
poem before its publication. He listened intently to 
the account of the stag hunt until the dogs throw 
themselves into the lake to follow their master, who 
has embarked with Ellen Douglas. Then lost in the 
reality of the scene, he started up suddenly declaring 
that the dogs must have been utterly ruined by being 
permitted to take to the water after such a severe 
chase. But an incident which Scott took especial 
pride in relating illustrates more fully the martial tone" 
of his verse. A friend of his boyhood, Sir Adam 
Ferguson, was serving under Lord Wellington in 
Portugal, as a captain of the fifty-eighth regiment. 
"In the course of the day, when The Lady of the Lake 
first reached him, he was posted with his company on 
a point of ground exposed to the enemy's artillery; 
somewhere no doubt on the lines of Torres Vedras. 
The men were ordered to lie prostrate on the ground ; 
while they kept that attitude, the captain, kneeling at 
their head, read aloud the description of the battle in 
Canto VI, and the listening soldiers only interrupted 
him by a joyous huzza, whenever the French shot 
struck the bank close above them." 

Thus it happened that Sir Walter Scott, at thirty- 
nine years of age, found his highest hopes and am- 
bitions connected with a literary career. For the 
The Pur- support of his family he had reasonable 
chase of prospects from his legal profession, and his 
Abbotsford rapidly increasing fame as an author 
gradually filled his mind with bright visions. As 
sheriff of Selkirkshire, he had given up the summer 
cottage at Lasswade in 1804, and removed to a little 
country home at Ashestiel, seven miles from Selkirk. 



202 The Lady of the Lake 

The place belonged to his cousin, and Scott's delight 
in its romantic scenery and in caring for his relative's 
woods filled his mind with dreams of a country home 
of his own. He had become secret partner of the 
publishing house of Ballantyne and Company at 
Edinburgh. His income as clerk of session, sheriff of 
Selkirkshire, and the most popular author of Scotland 
seemed to justify the purchase of a mountain home at 
Abbotsford, five miles lower down the Tweed. The 
price was £4,000. One-half the amount was bor- 
rowed from his brother, and the other half raised upon 
the security of a poem at the time unwritten. And 
this single purchase (May, 181 2) and the method of 
payment by forestalling the money not yet earned, 
introduces us to the most brilliant and at the same 
time the most unfortunate period of Scott's life. 

As poet he felt himself eclipsed by Byron, and in 
1 8 14 he took up and completed with great rapidity 
a story begun in 1805. It met at once with an enthu- 
siastic reception and was a discovery to the author 
himself that as novelist rather than poet his genius 
was to bear its richest fruit. Waverley, the new 
story, gave its name to that famous 'series of novels 
which have ranked Scott foremost among the writers 
of historical romance. Rapidly the novels followed 
one another. The boy whom his teachers called an 
"idle imp" proved himself capable now of prodigious 
industry. Rising at five o'clock, making a careful 
toilet and building his own fire, seated at his desk at 
six — by the time the family were ready for breakfast 
between nine and ten, he had, to use his own words, 
done enough "to break the neck of the day's work." 
His teeming imagination threw off novel after novel. 
His rare endurance enabled him at the same time to 
do an amount of historical and editorial work quite 
beyond the strength of ordinary men. For six 
months of the year also his duties as clerk of session 
took three hours of his time daily. His motto was 
"never to be doing nothing." 



A Biographical Sketch 203 

Happily, however, the motto applied not to hard 
work alone. At one o'clock each day he was "his 
own man," and to be "his own man" meant to fish, 
to hunt, to plant trees, and to improve the grounds 
of what he meant to be a magnificent baronial estate. 
When the original purchase of one hundred acres along 
the Tweed had been made for £4,000, Scott had writ- 
ten to his brother-in-law: "I assure you we are not 
a little proud of being greeted as laird and lady 
of Abbotsford" — Abbotsford, so named because the 
lands had all belonged of old to the great Abbey of 
Melrose. An ancient Roman road led from the 
Eildon hills to a ford of the Tweed near by. The 
abbey itself, one of the most picturesque of all the 
monastic ruins of Scotland, could be seen from his 
dooryard. What wonder that the pride of the new 
Laird of Abbotsford, the romantic novelist, should 
grow with the years and with his prosperity! Why 
should he not, like those Border ancestors, become a 
chief of the house of Scott; why not leave an estate 
and a name to be remembered through future gen- 
erations ? 

With such thoughts brightening the labor of every 
day, £29,000 were finally expended upon land alone. 
A magnificent castle was built with a frontage of 
150 feet, its hall 40 feet in length and 20 feet in height 
and in breadth. And the castle was filled with the 
armorial bearings of the house of Scott, with rare bits 
of armor — swords and spurs and shields — with 
choice pictures, and with a multitude of books. The 
main library alone, 50 feet by 30 feet, contained from 
15,000 to 20,000 volumes. And what entertainment 
was here! The doors were always open, and dis- 
tinguished guests from England and Scotland and 
America paid homage to the worthy head of the house 
of Scott. What hunting parties! what dinners! 
what stories from the host ! what ballads repeated and 
sung! But best of all neither the guests, nor the busy 
life, nor the increasing cares, could wean the father 



204 The Lady of the Lake 

from his love of domestic life, his tender affection for 
wife and children. Perhaps no more beautiful picture 
can be found in the biographies of literary men than 
Lockhart has given us of Scott and his children: 
'They went and came as pleased their fancy; he was 
always ready to answer their questions; and when 
they, unconscious how he was engaged, entreated him 
to lay down his pen and tell them a story, he would 
take them on his knee, repeat a ballad or a legend, 
kiss them, and set them down again to their marbles 
or their nine-pins, and resume his labor as if refreshed 
by the interruption." There was a simple blending, 
too, of moral instruction with their daily sports. 
"He taught them to think nothing of tumbles, and 
habituated them to his own reckless delight in 
perilous fords and flooded streams; and they all 
imbibed in great perfection his passion for horses. . . . 
'Without courage,' he said, 'there cannot be truth; 
and without truth there can be no other virtue.' ' 
Such were the brilliant years of Sir Walter Scott at 
Abbotsford in the prime of his manhood. But alas! 
the unhappy, the unfortunate years were at hand. 

The secret partnership with the publishing house 
of Ballantyne Brothers of Edinburgh led finally to 
a most disastrous business failure. The Ballantyne 
B . brothers were incapable of managing so 

affairs * large a business as grew upon their hands, 
while Scott himself, out of kindness of 
heart to personal friends, and from his own intense 
interest in antiquarian research, misjudged the public 
and advised the publication of unsalable books. 
"I like well," said George Constable, a famous pub- 
lisher who was involved in the failure, "I like well 
Scott's ain bairns — but heaven preserve me from those 
of his fathering." 

At length the final crash came in January, 1826, 
and Scott found himself personally liable for £1 17,000. 
Both he and his family were dazed and stunned by the 
blow. Mrs. Scott, whose health had been gradually 



A Biographical Sketch 205 

failing, grew suddenly worse and died within four 
months. At fifty-five years of age, bereft of the care 
and companionship of his wife, facing the loss of 
grounds and castle which so delightfully reminded 
him of the scenes in which his imagination loved to 
dwell, Sir Walter Scott acknowledged the debt not 
as a merchant might, to take advantage of the law 
of bankruptcy, but to pay it dollar for dollar like a 
Scotch gentleman whose honor was to be kept bright. 
Nothing more deeply pathetic, nothing more nobly 
heroic, is presented in the pages of literary biography 
than the struggle which now began. If his creditors 
would but give him time, he declared that neither 
rich nor poor should suffer by his loss. Two days 
after the news of the failure reached him, he calmly 
went on with his literary work and wrote twenty 
printed pages of Woodstock, the novel he was then 
composing. Completed in less than three months, 
this single story sold for £8,228 ($40,070). The 
Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, upon which he had spent 
the severest labor for two years, brought £18,000 
($87,660) more. Between January, 1826, and Janu- 
ary, 1828, he had earned for his creditors nearly 
£40,000 ($194,800), and in December, 1830, less than 
five years after his failure, he had reduced his indebt- 
edness by the enormous sum of £63,000 ($306,910). 
But the great strain to which he was subjecting 
himself began at last to make inroads upon his iron 
constitution. So early as 18 19 he had been troubled 

with severe indigestion, causing violent 
Last days cramps in the stomach. Two of his great 

novels, The Bride of Lammermoor and 
Ivanhoe, had at that time been dictated from a couch 
of pain; and John Ballantyne tells how Scott often 
turned himself on his pillow with a groan of torment, 
finishing the sentence he was dictating, however, in 
the same breath which had been interrupted by 
spasms of pain. His journal during the last five 
years of his life tells its own pathetic story. January 



206 The Lady of the Lake 

22, 1826, a few days after the news of his great mis- 
fortune, he writes: "It is odd, when I set myself to 
work doggedly, as Dr. Johnson would say, I am 
exactly the same man as I ever was — neither low- 
spirited nor distrait . . . adversity is to me at least 
a tonic and bracer." But he scarcely realized what a 
strain his iron will was putting upon his gradually 
failing body. September 12, 1826, one finds the 
entry: "As I slept for a few minutes in my chair, 
to which I am more addicted than I could wish, I 
heard, as I thought, my poor wife call me by the 
familiar name of fondness which she gave me. My 
recollections on waking were melancholy enough." 
The Christmas day entry, in 1827, after the enormous 
labor of that year, continues the noble personal 
history: "I see before me a long, tedious, and dark 
path, but it leads to stainless reputation. If I die in 
the harrows, as is very likely, I shall die with honor; 
if I achieve my task, I shall have the thanks of all 
concerned, and the approbation of my own conscience. 
And so, I think, I can fairly face the return of Christ- 
mas day." 

In February, 1830, came a forewarning of the inev- 
itable collapse. A slight paralytic stroke was the be- 
ginning of the end. Still he struggled on. In the 
midst of his dictation, John Laidlaw tells us, he would 
frequently pause and look round him like a man 
"mocked with shadows." Then rousing himself with 
a great effort, the dictation ran on bright and clear. 
But the brain weakened, the imaginative power was 
bedimmed, critics found fault with his work, medical 
men advised him to give up novel writing. "Should 
I stop work, I should go mad," he said; "yet God 
knows that I am at sea in the dark, and the vessel 
leaky, I think, into the bargain. ... I often wish 
I could lie down and sleep without waking. But I 
will fight it out if I can." 

And so the gallant fight went on toward the final 
peaceful sleep. In April, 1831, came a seizure of 



A Biographical Sketch 20J 

apoplectic paralysis more severe than any which had 
preceded it. In September, of the same year, he was 
finally persuaded to lay aside all thoughts of work 
and to try an ocean voyage and the change of interest 
and scenery which travel might bring. He was more 
easily induced to take this bit of recreation from the 
fancy which his weakened mind cherished that all his 
debts had been paid. From London he took ship 
for the Mediterranean, visited the island of Malta, 
Naples, and Rome. Everywhere his interest was in 
ancient ruins, in legends, and in traditions. The 
slightest return of physical vitality revived the hope 
of beginning work again, and at Naples a new novel, 
The Siege of Malta, was written but never published. 
The death of Goethe, March 22, 1832, was a great 
shock to Scott, who had hoped to visit him at Weimar, 
and he now urged an immediate return to his beloved 
Abbotsford. Steaming down the Rhine upon the 
eighth of June, his eye brightened at view of crags, and 
castles, and ruined monasteries, celebrated in German 
song. But the interest was momentary, for on the 
evening of the ninth came a final shock of apoplexy 
and paralysis. Reaching London on June 13, he lay 
for nearly a month half unconscious at St. James 
Hotel in Jermyn Street. At his urgent request the 
final journey to Abbotsford was undertaken on 
July 7 . For most of the way he was unconscious ; 
but as he neared Tweedside, lying upon a couch 
within a carriage, he began to gaze about him, evi- 
dently recognizing the familiar landscape. "Gala 
Water, surely," he murmured, "Buckholm — Tor- 
woodlee." And finally as the Eildon hills burst on 
his view and he caught sight of the towers of Abbots- 
ford Castle, he sprang up with a cry of delight. His 
strength for the moment returned and Mr. Lockhart 
and his doctors could scarcely hold him in the car- 
riage. "Ha! Willie Laidlaw!" he exclaimed, as his 
faithful servant stood waiting upon the porch, "O 
man, how often I have thought of you!" And then 



208 The Lady of the Lake 

as his dogs gathered about his chair and fawned upon 
him and licked his hands, he sobbed and smiled over 
them until he fell asleep. 

For a few weeks he was wheeled about his grounds 
and through his castle. "I have seen much," he kept 
saying, "but nothing like my ain house — give me one 
turn more!" Saddest of all, perhaps, was his final 
attempt to resume work. Starting up from a sleep in 
his chair one day, he threw back the plaids which were 
wrapped about him and insisted upon being carried 
to his study to write down the thoughts that might 
slip from his memory unless jotted down at once. 
Seated in his chair at the old familiar writing-desk, he 
smiled with pleasure. "Now give me my pen, and 
leave me for a little to myself," he said. But 
the pen fell from his nerveless fingers and dropped 
upon the paper, and he fell back among the pillows 
with the tears rolling down his cheeks. "There is no 
repose for Sir Walter," he said, "but in the grave." 

And a few days later the repose came. On a beau- 
tiful autumn afternoon, September 21, 1832, with 
windows wide open, and the rippling of the Tweed 
over its pebbles sounding in his ear, he fell asleep, and 
his eldest son kissed and closed his eyes. 

Thus ended the career of Sir Walter Scott. No more 
gallant fight was ever made by Scotsman of the House 
of Buccleuch. "Like the headland stemming a rough 
sea," says Hutton, "he was gradually worn away 
but never crushed." One delights to record that 
about fifteen years after his death the copyrights of 
his works were sold for an amount sufficient to pay 
his indebtedness in full. To his fine sense of business 
honor he had sacrificed his health and his life, but 
"the glory dies not, and the grief is past." 

"Adieu," we say with Thomas Carlyle, "Adieu, Sir 
Walter, pride of all Scotchmen, take our proud and 
sad farewell." 




The scene of the poem is laid chiefly in the vicinity 
of Loch Katrine in the western highlands of Perth- 
shire. The time of action includes six days, and the 
transactions of each day occupy a canto. 

CANTO FIRST 

i. Harp of the North. The harp was the national 
instrument of early Scottish minstrelsy. Note the 
modesty of Scott's invocation to the slumbering 
harp to wake again, 

"How rude soe'er the hand 
That ventures o'er thy magic maze to stray;" — 

(19, 20). Read aloud the three introductory stanzas 
and note the difference in effect between these longer 
lines (Spenserian stanza), and the more rapid four- 
foot measure of the poem. 

2. Witch-elm. Spelled more properly wych-elm 
or wich-elm, wych meaning bending or drooping. 
Its twigs used as riding whips were supposed to 
insure good luck and were used as divining rods. 
See "wizard elm," VI, 4942. 

2. Saint Fillan's Spring. Saint Fillan was a 
Scotch abbot of the seventh century. Two springs 
have received his name — one at the east end of Loch 
Earn; the other some thirty miles westward and 
about two miles from Tyndrum, to the north of Loch 
Lomond. According to tradition both possessed 
supernatural powers of healing, especially the second, 
which Scott refers to in Marmion I, xxix. 

[20Q] 14 



210 The Lady of the Lake 

' ' Thence to Saint Fillan 's blessed well 
Whose springs can frenzied dreams dispel, 
And the crazed brain restore. ' ' 

On the eve of the Battle of Bannockburn, Robert 
Bruce is said to have received miraculous encourage- 
ment from a relic of this saint — one of his arm- 
bones inclosed in a silver case. Very appropriately, 
therefore, is the slumbering but magic harp located 
at this sacred pool. 

10. Caledon. Caledonia, or northernmost Britain 
in Roman times. 

14. According pause. Pause in the lay or song 
suitably filled by the music of the harp. 

29. Monan's rill. Exact location is unknown. 
Saint Monan was a Scotch martyr of the fourth 
century. 

31. Glenartney. A valley in Perthshire through 
which the river Artney runs. 

32. Beacon red. An appropriate comparison. 
Signal-fires of alarm were kindled on the tops of 
mountains. 

33 . Benvoirlich. See map. The prefix Ben means 
mountain. 

45. Tossed his beamed frontlet to the sky. The 
accent in each foot is usually on the second syllable, 
iambic verse. Read several lines aloud and note the 
effect which the change of accent has in this line. 
Does it accord with the action suggested ? ' ' Beamed ' ' 
refers to the antlers upon the forehead of the stag. 

53. Uam-Var. Pronounced Ua-Var. The name 
means great den or cavern, and is derived from 
a rocky enclosure or retreat on the south side of the 
mountain. It may have been used in early times 
as a toil or trap for deer; later it became a refuge for 
robbers and banditti. See also the tradition men- 
tioned in 76, 77, below. 

54. Yelled . . . .pack. Why this word-order, as in 
59, 64, 65, and frequently throughout the poem? 



Notes 211 

1 1 Opening, " as a hunting term, refers to the baying 
or barking of the hounds as they scent or catch sight 
of the game. Read aloud the vivid and spirited 
description from i, to iv. Compare lines 36 and 70 
with 34 and 35 for consonant effect. 

71. Linn. 1. A pool or waterfall. 2. A steep 
precipice or ravine. Which meaning best suits the 
line? 

73. Read several lines aloud carefully, and note 
the pleasing effect of the variation in accent in this 
line. Compare 85 and 97 below. See note on 45 
above. 

84. Shrewdly. Severely. How is this sense of 
the word marked in the dictionary? 

89. Menteith. The district in southwestern part 
of Perthshire watered by the river Teith. See map 
for the outlook of the stag as he stands upon the 
southern slope of Uam-Var. Aberfoyle is a small 
village one and a half miles east of Loch Ard. 

103. Cambusmore. An estate about two miles 
from Callander, on the Keltie, a tributary of the 
Teith. It belonged to the Buchanans, friends whom 
Scott frequently visited in his younger days. 

105. Benledi's ridge. See map. Northwest of 
Callander. Benledi rose 3,009 feet in height. 

106. Bochastle's heath. A level plain between 
the east end of Lake Vennachar and the Teith . 

112. Brigg of Turk. A bridge over the Turk, a 
small stream in the valley of Glenfinlas. 

117. Embossed. Covered with patches of foam. 
An old hunting term formerly applied to dogs and 
beasts of the chase when foaming at the mouth and 
panting, as from exhaustion with running. 

120. St. Hubert's breed. Famous hunting hounds 
which the abbots of St. Hubert always kept in re- 
membrance of their saint, who was a hunter. The 
earliest breed was black; later they were found of 
different colors. 



212 The Lady of the Lake 

130. Stock. A log or stump. 

131. That mountain high. Probably Ben venue. 
See 96, 97, 

137. For the death-wound, etc. The stag at bay 
was desperate and dangerous and it was a matter 
of pride with the hunter to give him his death-wound 
and to announce it with a shout of victory. Scott 
says that at certain seasons of the year the feat was 
held to be particularly dangerous, "a wound from 
a stag's horn being then deemed poisonous." See 
his Bride of Lammermoor, Chap, ix, for an interest- 
ing description of a stag at bay. 

138. Whinyard. A short stout sword or knife. 
142. And turned him. Reflexive use of the per- 
sonal pronoun; not uncommon in poetry. 

145. Trosachs. A name especially applied to 
a romantic pass or defile between Lochs Katrine and 
Achray. The term Trosachs, however, signifies 
"rough or bristled country" and was generally 
applied to the district between Lochs Katrine and 
Vennachar. 

151. Chiding. In hunting, the sound made by 
hounds in full cry; baying. (Century Dictionary.) 

163. The banks of Seine. James visited France 
in 1536 and in the spring of the following year married 
Magdalen, daughter of the King of France (Francis I). 

166. Woe worth the chase. Woe be to the chase. 
Worth is an imperative verb derived from the Anglo- 
Saxon weorthan, to become. 

178. Round and around, etc. Read aloud and 
note the sonorousness of the line. 

xi-xvi. The western waves, etc. This admirable 
description of the Trosachs was written by Scott in 
the summer of 1809, when he was visiting the famous 
locality which he describes. Indeed he had often 
visited this wild region and it was peculiarly dear 
to him. 



Notes 213 

In connection with the accuracy and minuteness 
of his descriptions both in poetry and romance, his 
friend Mr. Morritt reports an interesting conversation 
with Scott: "'You have often given me materials 
for romance/ Scott remarked, 'now I want a good 
robber's cave, and an old church of the right sort.' 
We rode out [it was near Rokeby], and he 
found what he wanted in the ancient slate quarries 
of Brignol, and the ruined Abbey of Eggleston. I 
observed him noting down even the peculiar little 
wild flowers and herbs that accidentally grew round 
and on the side of a bold crag near his intended cave 
of Guy Denzil; and could not help saying, that as he 
was not to be upon oath in his work, daisies, violets, 
and primroses would be as poetical as any of the 
humble plants he was examining. I laughed, in 
short, at his scrupulousness; but I understood him 
when he replied, 'that in nature herself no two scenes 
were exactly alike, and that whoever copied truly 
what was before his eyes would possess the same 
variety in his descriptions, and exhibit apparently 
an imagination as boundless as the range of nature 
in the scenes he recorded; whereas, whoever trusted 
to imagination, would soon find his own mind circum- 
scribed, and contracted to a few favorite images, and 
the repetition of these would sooner or later produce 
that very monotony and barrenness which had always 
haunted descriptive poetry in the hands of any but 
the patient worshipers of truth. ' ' ' 

Let the passage be read aloud and the phrases of 
form and color appeal to the imagination : Ruggedness 
for instance, in flinty spire, thunder-splintered pin- 
nacle, rocky summits, etc. ; and color in purple peak, 
floods of fire, streamers green, primrose pale, violet 
flower, delicious blue, etc. 

196, 197. Tower . . . .on Shinar's plain. The tower 
of Babel, Genesis xi. 1-9. 

202. Pagod. Pagoda, a heathen temple. Its 
grammatical construction ? 



214 The Lady of the Lake 

208. Sheen. Shining, bright. 

218-220. Foxglove and nightshade, etc. The first, 
one of the most stately and beautiful of European 
plants; the second, a homely and poisonous weed. 

227. Frequent flung. Poetic use of adjective for 
adverb. 

240. Lost for a space, etc. Lost and veering 
modify inlet supplied from the preceding lines. An 
absolute construction. 

256. Unless he climb, with footing nice, etc. Until 
the present road was made through the romantic 
pass which I have presumptuously attempted to 
describe in the preceding stanzas, there was no mode 
of issuing out of the defile called the Trosachs, 
excepting by a sort of ladder, composed of the 
branches and roots of trees. (Scott.) Define ' "nice" 
as here used. 

274. Wildering. Bewildering. 

287. Chide. Explain the figure. Is the word 
used in its modern sense or as in 151 above? 

294. While the deep peal's commanding tone. 
Does the change of meter have an appropriate effect? 
Try it with the ear by reading aloud. 

297. To drop a bead, etc. That is, in counting 
his prayers. The original meaning of bead is prayer. 

313. Highland plunderers. Scott says: ''The 
clans who inhabited the romantic regions in the 
neighborhood of Loch Katrine, were, even until a late 
period, much addicted to predatory excursions upon 
their Lowland neighbors. " Indeed he thinks the 
name Katrine to mean the lake of the Catterans, or 
highland robbers who had formerly prowled about 
its shores. 

317. Fall. Befall, a conditional sentence with 
if omitted. The knight expresses confidence in his 
sword if the worst should happen. 

353. To measured mood. That is, to the formal 
manner of court etiquette. 



Notes 215 

363. Snood. The snood or band of ribbon 
worn by Scottish maidens. It had an emblematical 
significance and applied to her maiden character. 
After marriage it was replaced by the matron's 
curch, coif, or cap. 

409. Middle age. Slightly inaccurate, as James 
died at thirty-one years of age. See Introduction, 
p. 189. 

438. A couch was pulled for you. That is, a couch 
of mountain heather. See 667 below. 

460. Was on the visioned future bent. Belief in 
the power of second sight, or prophesy, was com- 
mon among the Highlanders. "It w^as a peculiar 
faculty of seeing an otherwise invisible object . . . 
at the sight of a vision the eyelids of the person 
are erected and the eyes continue staring until the 
object vanishes. " (Scott.) 

475. Errant-knight. Knight-errant. A touch of 
romance is given to the meeting between Ellen and 
Fitz-James by the king's use of this word. The 
knight-errant, as Taylor suggests, was 

"To ride about redressing human wrongs. 

To love one maiden only, cleave to her, 
And worship her by noble deeds, 
Until he won her. ' ' 

488. With heads erect, etc. See Scott's Life, p. 201. 

490. Frequent. See 227 above. 

492. The rocky isle. This romantic retreat at 
the foot of Loch Katrine is still known as Ellen's 
Isle, and is visited by hundreds of travelers annually. 
But two or three acres in extent and rising from 
twenty-five to fifty feet above the surface of the 
lake, it is covered with a thick undergrowth of 
shrubbery, graceful birches, red-berried mountain 
ashes, and a few dark green pines. The landing is 
in a slight recess hidden by trees and at the foot of 
an aged oak. 



216 The Lady of the Lake 

504. For retreat in dangerous hour. The Celtic 
chieftains, whose lives were continually exposed 
to peril, had usually, in the most retired spot of their 
domains, some place of retreat for the hour of 
necessity, which, as circumstances would admit, 
was a tower, a cavern, or a rustic hut, in a strong 
and secluded situation. One of these last gave 
refuge to the unfortunate Charles Edward in his 
perilous wanderings after the Battle of Culloden. 
(Scott.) 

525. Idcean. Of or pertaining to Mount Ida 
near ancient Troy, or to Mount Ida in Crete. Both 
were celebrated for their vines. 

528. Hardy plant. Plant is coordinate in con- 
struction with ivy and clematis. What is the subject 
of " could bear"? 

542. Careless flung. l 'Careless" illustrates what 
poetic use ? ' ' Flung ' ' is what part of speech ? 

546. Target. A shield or buckler used for defense 
in battle. See note on V, 3351 below. 

573. Ferragus or Ascabart. Giants of mediaeval 
romance. 

580. To whom, though more than kindred knew. 
The MS. reading makes the meaning clear: 

"To whom, though more remote her claim, 
Young Ellen gave a mother's name." 

Canto II, xiii, 995-997 suggests the cause of their 
mutual love. The aunt had sorrowed over and 
loved her sister's child, and Ellen in turn had given 
her the affection due to a mother, or more than such 
kindred (niece and aunt) usually knew. 

585. Though all unasked his birth and name. The 
Highlanders, who carried hospitality to a punctilious 
excess, are said to have considered it as churlish to 
ask a stranger his name or lineage before he had 
taken refreshment. (Scott.) 

589. Banquet. Grammatical construction? 



Notes 217 

591. Snowdoun. An old name for Stirling Castle 
in which James had found refuge in his flight from 
the Douglases. See James V of Scotland, p. 187, 
of Introduction. 

592. Lord of a barren heritage, etc. There is 
much of truth, of course, in James's statement. His 
father, James IV, had perished at the Battle of 
Flodden Field, and the Scottish kings had for gener- 
ations been obliged to maintain their authority by 
force of arms. See "Causes of Internal Strife in Scot- 
land," p. 184, of Introduction. 

602. Require. Request or ask. 

616. Weird. Skilled in witchcraft. Note the 
following lines as to their skill. Down. A hill. 

622. A harp unseen. Scott gives a note of some 
length upon the delight of the early Highlanders in 
the harp and song. "How it happened that the 
noisy and inharmonious bagpipe banished the soft 
and expressive harp, we cannot say; but certain 
it is that the bagpipe is now the only instrument 
that obtains universally in the Highland districts. ' ' 
(Campbell's Journey through North Britain, London, 
1808.) 

624. Soldier, rest! etc. Note the pleasing effect 
of the change in meter and rhyme in the song. 

631. Dewing. Bedewing, refreshing. 

657. Reveille (re-val-ya). Beat of drum or blast 
of bugle about break of day, as signal for soldiers to 
rise. 

CANTO SECOND 

752. Minstrel gray. Scott says : ' ' Highland chief- 
tains, to a late period, retained in their service 
the bard, as a family officer. He was skilled in the 
genealogy of all the Highland families, sometimes 
preceptor to the young laird, and celebrated, in verse 
and song, the warlike deeds of successive heads of 
the clan." 



218 The Lady of the Lake 

809. As life itself were fled. As if lite, etc. A 
common ellipsis. Why were instead of was? 

825. What is the subject of " would scorn? " See 1, 
528 above. 

829. Turned him to the glade. See I, 142 above. 

836. As at that simple mute farewell. Note the 
skill and delicacy with which Scott has suggested 
the mutual admiration of Fitz-James and Ellen. The 
romantic feelings of each are delicately sketched in 
the Knight's dream at close of Canto I, in Ellen's 
place beside the Harper in the morning, her signal of 
farewell, and the Knight's quick response of feeling. 

854. Graeme. Scott says here: "The ancient 
and powerful family of Graham (which for metrical 
reasons is here spelt after the Scottish pronunciation) 
held extensive possessions in the counties of Dum- 
barton and Stirling. Few families can boast of more 
historical renown, having claim to three of the most 
remarkable characters in the Scottish annals. Sir 
John the Graeme, the faithful and undaunted par- 
taker of the labors and patriotic warfare of Wallace, 
fell in the unfortunate field of Falkirk, in 1298." 
The others mentioned by Scott are the celebrated 
Marquis of Montrose and John Graeme of Claver- 
house, Viscount of Dundee. 

857. In hall and bower. The hall, the large and 
open assembly room; the bower, the ladies' apart- 
ments. Young Malcolm is celebrated, therefore, for 
his courage among the men and his gallantry among 
the ladies. 

876. St. Modan. A Scotch abbot of the seventh 
century. I am not prepared to show that St. Modan 
was a performer on the harp. It was, however, no 
unsaintly accomplishment; for St. Dunstan certainly 
did play upon that instrument, which retaining, as 
was natural, a portion of the sanctity attached to its 
master 's character, announced future events by its 
spontaneous sound. (Scott.) 



Notes 2ig 

886. BothwelVs bannered hall, etc. For banish- 
ment of the Douglases from Scotland see Introduc- 
tion, p. 1 88. The castle, now in ruins, is situated on 
the river Clyde about nine miles from Glasgow. It 
belonged to the Douglas family, and Scott visited 
it in 1799 when it was the seat of Archibald Lord 
Douglas, who had married Lady Frances Scott, one 
of the poet's dearest friends through life. 
' 904. From Tweed to Spey. From one end of 
Scotland to the other. The Tweed was the southern 
boundary, the Spey flowed into the North Sea. 

915. Reave. Tear or sweep away. 

945. The Lady of the Bleeding Heart. Robert 
Bruce as his dying request had urged his dearest 
friend, Lord James Douglas, to carry his heart to 
the Holy Land. In obedience to this request Douglas 
caused a silver case to be made into which he put 
Bruce 's heart, and wore it around his neck by a string 
of silk and gold. On his way to Palestine he stopped 
to aid Alphonso, the Spanish King of Castile, in 
his war against the Saracens of Granada. Being 
surrounded by an overwhelming number of the 
Moors, Douglas took from his neck Bruce 's heart 
and spoke to it as he would have done to the king, 
had he been alive: "Pass first in fight, " he said, 
"as thou wert wont to do, and Douglas will follow 
thee or die. ' ' He then threw the king 's heart among 
the enemy and, rushing forward to the place where 
it fell, was there slain. From that time the Douglases 
carried upon their shields a bleeding heart, with a 
crown upon it, in memory of this expedition of Lord 
James to Spain with Brace's heart. (See story of 
Robert Bruce in Scott's Tales of a Grandfather.) 

951. Strathspey. A lively Highland dance, — the 
name is derived from the strath, or broad valley of 
the Spey. 

958. Clan- Alpine } s pride. Several clans claimed 
descent from Kenneth Mac Alpine, an ancient king. 
In the poem, Sir Roderick Dhu is their leader. 



220 The Lady of the La e 

959. Lock Lomond. One of the largest and most 
beautiful lakes in Scotland. At the southern end 
there are numerous islands, one of which, Inch-Cail- 
liach, is mentioned in III, 1808-9 below as the burial 
place of Clan Alpine. 

961. A Lennox foray. That is, a raid into the 
territory of the Lennox family, which bordered on 
the south end of Loch Lomond. 

965. Black Sir Roderick. See note on 1153 below 

966. In Holy -Rood a knight he slew. In Holy-Rood 
castle in Edinburgh, the residence of the royal family 
of Scotland. Scott says: "This was by no means 
an uncommon occurrence in the court of Scotland; 
nay, the presence of the sovereign himself scarcely 
restrained the ferocious and inveterate feuds which 
were the perpetual source of bloodshed among the 
Scottish nobility. ' ' It was a heinous offense, however, 
and Sir Roderick had been outlawed for the crime. 

972. Woe the day. Woe be to the day. 

975. Disowned by every noble peer. The exiled 
state of this powerful race is not exaggerated in 
this and subsequent passages. The hatred of James 
against the race of Douglas was so inveterate that 
numerous as their allies were, and disregarded as the 
regal authority had usually been in similar cases, 
their nearest friends, even in the most remote parts 
of Scotland, durst not entertain them, unless under 
the strictest and closest disguise. (Scott.) This 
fact gives emphasis to the courage of Sir Roderick 
and to the obligation of Ellen and her father. 

981. Dispensation. Permission from the Pope 
to marry contrary to the general law. Roderick 
and Ellen were cousins and could not marry without 
such dispensation. 

996. Orphan. Referring to child in the next line. 

998-1000. Note the inverted order. Analyze the 
sentence. Shrouds. Shields or protects. 



Notes 221 

1005. Maronnan's cell. The parish of Kilmaro- 
nock, at east end of Loch Lomond, takes its name 
from a cell, or chapel, dedicated to St. Maronnan. 

1015. Bracklinn's thundering wave. A beautiful 
cascade about a mile from Callander in Menteith. 

1 01 6. Save. Unless; followed by subjunctive of 
condition in next line. 

1048. Woe the while. Woe be to the time. See 972. 

105 1. Tine-man. Archibald, the third Earl of 
Douglas, was so unfortunate in all his enterprises 
that he acquired the epithet of "tine-man," because 
he tined, or lost, his followers in every battle which 
he fought. (Scott.) 

1052. What time he leagued, etc. At the time 
when Douglas joined his Scottish spearmen with 
the English bowmen under Percy, or Hotspur, in the 
rebellion against Henry IV of England. Even in 
this alliance he was again Tine-man (loser), being 
wounded and taken prisoner at the Battle of Shrews- 
bury. See Shakespeare, Henry IV, part 1. 

1054. Self-unscabbarded. See I, 536-543. Swords 
said to have been made by magic, or ' * forged by 
fairy lore, ' ' as the poet tells us, are said to have had 
the power to unsheathe themselves at the approach 
of their owner's mortal enemy. Scott gives several 
instances of this kind that were recorded in the 
romances and legends of ancient Scotland. 

1064. Beltane game. A Celtic festival (May 1) in 
honor of the sun. Beltane means Beal-tein, or Beal's 
fire; Beal being a Gaelic name for the sun. 

1072. The canna's hoary beard. The down of the 
canna, or cotton-grass. 

1080. Glengyle. A valley at the northern end of 
Loch Katrine. 

1082. Brianchoil. A promontory on the north 
shore of the lake. 

1085. Bannered Pine. The pine in the banner 
was the heraldic badge of Clan Alpine. See 1145-1147. 

1088. Brave. Gay, showy. 



222 The Lady of the Lake 

1090. Bonnets. Scotch caps. 

1095. Gaudy streamers, etc. The bright ribbons 
attached to the chanters, or tubes of the bagpipes. 

1 108. Thrilling sounds. Scott says: "The con- 
noisseurs in pipe-music affect to discover in a well- 
composed pibroch the imitative sounds of march, 
conflict, flight, pursuit, and all the 'current of a 
heady fight.'" Dr. Beattie adds: "Some of these 
pibrochs, being intended to represent a battle, begin 
with a grave motion, resembling a march; then 
gradually quicken into the onset ; run off with noisy 
confusion, and turbulent rapidity, to imitate the 
conflict and pursuit; then swell into a few flourishes 
of triumphant joy; and perhaps close with the wild 
and slow wailings of a funeral procession. ' ' 

1 1 12. Hurrying. In agreement with the pronoun 
their in the next line. The regular construction 
would be: The battered earth returns the tread of 
those who are hurrying at the signal dread. 

1 137. The burden bore. Sustained the burden or 
chorus of the song. See 1141 below. 

1 1 50. Burgeon. To sprout; to put forth buds. 

1 1 53. Roderick Vich Alpine dhu, ho f ieroe. Vich 
means descendant of; dhu, black; and ieroe, great- 
grandchild. The line signifies: Black Roderick, the 
descendant of Alpine, and the last two words are a 
sort of shout of praise for the leader. Scott says that 
every Highland chief had an epithet expressive of 
his patriarchal dignity as head of the clan, and 
another peculiar to himself, which distinguished him 
from the chieftains of the same race. The latter was 
sometimes derived from complexion, as dhu or roy. 
He intended the song as an imitation of the boat- 
songs of the Highlanders, "which were usually 
composed in honor of a favorite chief. They are so 
adapted as to keep time with the sweep of the oars, 
and it is easy to distinguish between those intended 
to be sung to the oars of a galley, where the stroke 
is lengthened and doubled, as it were, and those 
which were timed to the rowers of an ordinary boat." 



Notes 
Hail to the Chief. 



223 



Written by Sir Walter Scott. 
Moderate. 



Music by Sanderson. 






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224 The Lady of the Lake 

Hail to the Chief— Continued. 



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Hail to the chief who in tri-umph ad - van - ces, 



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225 



Hail to the Chief— Concluded. 

Allegro. 



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Heav'n send it hap-py dew, Earth lend it sap a-new, 



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226 The Lady of the Lake 

1 1 55. Beltane. See 1064 above. 

1 160. On pronoun him see I, 142 above. 

1 161. Menteith and Breadalbane. Breadalbane is 
a large district north of Loch Lomond and around 
Loch Tay. For Menteith see I, 89 above. 

1 1 64-1 166. Glen Fruin, Bannochar, etc. Valleys 
bordering upon Loch Lomond. 

1 167. And the best of Loch Lomond, etc. The 
Lennox, as the district is called which encircles the 
lower extremity of Loch Lomond, was peculiarly 
exposed to the incursions of the mountaineers, who 
inhabited the inaccessible fastnesses at the upper 
end of the lake and the neighboring district of Loch 
Katrine. These were often marked by circumstances 
of great ferocity. (Scott.) 

1 1 76. The rosebud. Ellen, of course. The song 
was in keeping with the desire and purpose of the 
chief. 

122 1. Weeped. A poetic license for the sake of 
the rhyme. 

1240. Arched gate of Bothwell. See note on 886 
above. 

1242. Percy's Norman pennon. Captured in a 
raid (1388) which was celebrated later in the ballad 
of Chevy Chase. 

1249. Though the waned crescent. Probably a 
reference to the defeat of Sir Walter Scott of Buc- 
cleuch by the Douglas, when he attempted to release 
the king. See p. 191 of the biography of Scott. The 
shield of "Auld Wat" bore a crescent moon and 
his defeat is referred to as the waned crescent. 

1 25 1. Blantyre. An old priory or abbey opposite 
Bothwell Castle. 

1258. Out-beggars. Greatly excels in value. 

1270. Unhooded. The falcon was carried on the 
wrist, its head being covered. When the covering 
was removed, it usually took immediate flight in 
pursuit of prey. 



Notes 227 

1 271. Trust. Believe me, or be assured. 

1272. Fabled Goddess. Diana. 

1280. Malcolm Graeme. See note on 854 above, 
and compare this description of a noble youth of 
the celebrated Graham family with that of Roderick 
Dhu given by Ellen in xiv above. 

1286. Ptarmigan. The winter plumage of the 
ptarmigan was chiefly pure white. 

1293. Ben Lomond. 3,192 feet in height. It was 
six miles from base to summit, part of the ascent 
being exceedingly steep and laborious. 

13 1 2. And why. The unfinished question sug- 
gests some anxiety as to the welcome which Roderick 
would extend to Malcolm. See 1326 below. 

1319. Glenfinlas' shade. A wooded valley, the 
entrance to which is between Lochs Achray and 
Vennachar. See map. 

1322. A royal ward, etc. As ward of the king 
and under his guardianship, Malcolm's aid to Doug- 
las would be deemed traitorous. 

1328. Strath-Endrick glen. A low valley south- 
east of Loch Lomond and drained by Endrick water, 
which flows into Loch Lomond. 

1365-1367. And when the banquet they prepared. 
See Introduction, p. 188, 189. 

1368. Meggat. A mountain stream tributary to 
the Yarrow which empties into the Ettrick, which 
in turn flows into the Tweed. The Teviot also 
flows into the Tweed. 

1383. Your counsel. That is, give me your counsel 
in the emergency which I show. 

1404. The Bleeding Heart. See note on 945 
above. 

14 1 9. Allies. Does the dictionary justify the 
pronunciation which the meter calls for? 

1423. The Links of Forth. The windings of the 
river. 



228 The Lady of the Lake 

1424. Stirling's porch. Stirling Castle, the royal 
residence, situated below the junction of the Teith 
and the Forth. See Introduction, p. 187. 

1426-1427. Would such a threat tend to win 
Ellen's love? Note following line in comparison with 
lines 1020-102 1. 

1430. My heat might say. Though the edition 
1834 has "my heart, " the reading of the edition of 
1 82 1 has been restored. What Roderick had just 
said of burning villages to celebrate his marriage was 
not calculated to win Ellen and his mother had so 
indicated to him by signs, therefore this clumsy 
attempt to ' ' take it back. ' ' 

1447. Battled fence. A wall provided with battle- 
ments or openings from which to discharge missiles. 

1 5 19. So lately taught. Probably a reference to 
the discord kindled at the Beltane game. See 1063- 
1065 above. 

1547. Such cheek should feel the midnight air. 
Scott adds an interesting note: "Hardihood was 
in every respect so essential to the character of a 
Highlander, that the reproach of effeminacy was the 
most bitter that could be thrown upon him. Yet it 
was sometimes hazarded on what we might presume 
to think slight grounds. It is reported of old Sir 
Ewen Cameron of Lochiel, when upwards of seventy, 
that he was surprised by night on a hunting or 
military expedition. He wrapped him in his plaid, 
and lay contentedly down on the snow, with which 
the ground happened to be covered. Among his 
attendants, who were preparing to v take their rest 
in the same manner, he observed that one of his 
grandsons, for his better accommodation, had rolled 
a large snowball, and placed it below his head. The 
wrath of the ancient chief was awakened by a symp- 
tom of what he conceived to be degenerate luxury. 
' Out upon thee/ said he, kicking the frozen bolster 
from the head which it supported, 'art thou so 
effeminate as to need a pillow?'" 



Notes 22Q 

1554. Henchman. This officer is a sort of secretary 
and. is to be ready on all occasions to venture his life 
in defense of his master; and at drinking-bouts he 
stands behind his seat, at his haunch, from which 
his title is derived, and watches the conversation 
to see if any one offends his patron. (Scott.) 

1576. Fiery Cross. See Canto III, line 1635. 

CANTO THIRD 

1632. What time. At the time when. 

1635. Fiery Cross. When a chieftain designed to 
summon his clan, upon any sudden or important 
emergency, he slew a goat, and making a cross of 
any light wood, seared its extremities in the fire, 
and extinguished them in the blood of the animal. 
This was called the Fiery Cross, also Cream Tarigh, 
or the Cross of Shame, because disobedience to 
what the symbol implied inferred infamy. It was 
delivered to a swift and trusty messenger, who ran full 
speed with it to the next hamlet, where he presented 
it to the principal person, with a single word, imply- 
ing the place of rendezvous. He who received the 
symbol was bound to send it forward, with equal 
dispatch, to the next village; and thus it passed with 
incredible celerity through all the district which 
owed allegiance to the chief, and also among his 
allies and neighbors, if the danger was common to 
them. At sight of the Fiery Cross, every man, from 
sixteen years old to sixty, capable of bearing arms, 
was obliged instantly to repair, in his best arms and 
accoutrements, to the place of rendezvous. He who 
failed to appear, suffered the extremities of fire and 
sword, which were emblematically denounced to 
the disobedient by the bloody and burnt marks upon 
this warlike signal. During the civil war of 1745-6, 
the Fiery Cross often made its circuit; and upon 
one occasion it passed through the whole district of 
Breadalbane, a tract of thirty-two miles, in three 
hours. (Scott.) 



230 The Lady of the Lake 

1656. Cushat. Ringdove or wood pigeon. 

1679. Rowan wild. The mountain ash. Twigs 
from the rowan tree were supposed to possess a 
peculiar charm in warding off evil. 

1688. That monk, etc. The state of religion in 
the middle ages afforded considerable facilities for 
those whose mode of life excluded them from regular 
worship, to secure, nevertheless, the ghostly assist- 
ance of confessors, perfectly willing to adapt the 
nature of their doctrine to the necessities and peculiar 
circumstances of their flock. Robin Hood, it is 
well known, had his celebrated domestic chaplain, 
Friar Tuck. (Scott.) 

1690. Had drawn, etc. That is, by prophetic 
vision. See 1 784-1 791 below. 

1 69 1. Benharrow. A mountain near the head of 
Loch Lomond. 

1693. But Druid's, from the grave released. As if 
Brian were one of the ancient Druids, priests of the 
early Celtic inhabitants of Gaul and Britain. In 
the following description of Brian's birth and his 
mystic rites, Scott has drawn upon numerous super- 
stitions and customs of Scottish Highland life. 

1698. The hallowed creed, etc. The Christian creed. 
See 1843-1846 below. Christ's name mingled with 
the pagan rites only added emphasis to the curse. 

1704. Strath. The broad valley of a river, in con- 
trast with the glen or narrow valley of a stream. 

1708. Of Brian's birth strange tales were told. The 
legend which follows Scott took from geographical 
collections made by the Laird of MacFarlane. In 
Greek mythology, Fate and black Destiny and Death, 
the offsprings of Night, have no father. Merlin, the 
prophet who figures in English and Scottish mythol- 
ogy, had also a mysterious origin. 

1 7 19. Bucklered. Shielded or protected. The 
buckler was a small round shield worn on the 
left arm. 



Notes 231 

1731. Snood. See I, 363. 

1750. Meteor fire. That is, by observing the 
meteors or shooting stars. 

1755. Sable-lettered page. Old books in " black- 
letter, ' ' the heavy-faced type used in early prints. 

1759. Cabala. Mysteries. See dictionary for 
origin. 

1 771. River Demon. The River Demon, or River- 
horse, for it is that form which he commonly assumes, 
is the Kelpy of the Lowlands, an evil and malicious 
spirit, delighting to forebode and to witness calamity. 
He frequents most Highland lakes and rivers; and 
one of his most memorable exploits was performed 
upon the banks of Loch Vennachar, in the very 
district which forms the scene of our action; it con- 
sisted in the destruction of a funeral procession, 
with all its attendants. (Scott.) 

1785. The fatal Ben-Shie's boding scream. Most 
great families in the Highlands were supposed to 
have a tutelar, or rather a domestic, spirit attached 
to them, who took an interest in their prosperity, 
and intimated, by its wailings, any approaching 
disaster. . . . The Ben-Shie implies the female fairy 
whose lamentations were often supposed to precede 
the death of a chieftain of particular families. When 
she is visible, it is in the form of an old woman, with 
a blue mantle and streaming hair. A superstition 
of the same kind is, I believe, universally received 
by the inferior ranks of the native Irish. (Scott.) 

1786. Sounds , too, had come. A presage of the kind 
alluded to in the text, is still believed to announce 
death to the ancient Highland family of MacLean of 
Lochbuy. The spirit of an ancestor slain in battle 
is heard to gallop along a stony bank, and then to 
ride thrice around the family residence, ringing his 
fairy bridle, and thus intimating the approaching 
calamity. How easily the eye as well as the ear may 
be deceived upon such occasions, is evident from 



232 The Lady of the Lake 

the stories of armies in the air, and other spectral 
phenomena with which history abounds. (Scott.) 

1808. Inch-Cailliach. The Isle of Nuns, or of Old 
Women, is a most beautiful island at the lower ex- 
tremity of Loch Lomond The burial ground con- 
tinues to be used, and contains the family places of 
sepulture of several neighboring clans. The monu- 
ments of the lairds of MacGregor and of other families, 
claiming a descent from the old Scottish King Alpine, 
are most remarkable. (Scott.) 

1 816. Woe to the clansman, etc. To realize the 
effectiveness of the curse in this graphic and vigorous 
stanza, try to imagine the scene and then read the 
stanza aloud. 

1846. Had more of blasphemy than prayer. See 
1696-1699 above. 

1862. Mingled with childhood's babbling thrill, etc. 
"The whole of this stanza is very impressive; the 
mingling of the children's curses is the climax of 
horror. Note the meaning of the triple curse: The 
cross is of ancestral yew — the defaulter is cut off 
from communion with his clan; it is seared in the 
fire — the fire shall destroy his dwelling ; it is dipped in 
blood — his heart's blood is to be shed." (Taylor.) 

1870. Coir-Uriskin, or Coir-nan-Uriskin C'corry 
or den of the wild men"). A steep and romantic 
hollow in the mountain of Benvenue overhanging 
the southeastern extremity of Loch Katrine. Accord- 
ing to tradition the Urisk had a figure between a 
goat and a man, similar to the Grecian Satyr. For 
full description of the grotto, see stanza xxvi below. 

1872. Beala-nam-bo. Beala-nam-bo, or the pass 
of the cattle, is a most magnificent glade, overhung 
with aged birch trees, a little higher up the mountain 
than the Coir-nan-Uriskin. (Scott.) 

1903. Lanrick mead. A meadow at the north- 
eastern end of Loch Vennachar. 



Notes 233 

1 9 1 7 . The dun deer } s hide. The ancient buskin was 
. . . made of undressed deer's hide, with the hair out- 
wards — a circumstance which procured the Highland- 
ers the well-known epithet of Red-shanks. (Scott.) 

1927. Scaur. Cliff or precipice . 

1959. Alas, thou lovely lake! Note Scott's fine 
sympathy with the serenity of Nature. 

1961. The rocks . . . .sleep, etc. Is this clause gram- 
matically dependent or independent? 

1971. Duncraggan's huts. A homestead near the 
Brigg of Turk, between Lochs Achray and Ven- 
nachar. 

1 99 1 . Coronach. The coronach of the Highlanders 
. . . was a wild expression of lamentation, poured 
forth by the mourners over the body of a departed 
friend. When the words of it were articulate, they 
expressed the praises of the deceased, and the loss 
the clan would sustain by his death. (Scott.) 

2008. Correi. A hollow in the side of a hill, where 
game usually lies. 

2009. Cumber. Trouble, perplexity. 

2016. Stumah. Faithful; the name of a dog. 
(Scott.) 

2061. Hest. Poetical for behest; bidding. 

2075. Strath-Ire. A valley on the east of Ben- 
ledi and connecting Lochs Voil and Lubnaig. About 
a half mile from the southern end of Loch Lubnaig 
is the Chapel of St. Bride, situated on the river 
Leny, a branch of the Teith ("Teith's young 
waters"). Scott says: "The first stage of the Fiery 
Cross is to Duncraggan, a place near the Brigg of 
Turk, where a short stream divides Loch Achray 
from Loch Vennachar. From thence, it passes 
toward Callander, and then, turning to the left up the 
pass of Leny, is consigned to Norman at the chapel 
of St. Bride, which stood on a small and romantic 
knoll in the middle of the valley, called Strath-Ire. 
Tombea and Armandave, or Ardmandave, are names 



234 The Lady of the Lake 

of places in the vicinity. The alarm is then supposed 
to pass along the lake of Lubnaig, and through the 
various glens in the district of Balquidder, including 
the neighboring tracts of Glenfinlas and Strath- 
Gartney.' , 

2087. Sympathetic eye. That is, the eye reeled in 
sympathy with the dizzily dancing waves. 

2107. Coif-clad. See on I, 363. 

21 17. Kercheif. Same as curch or coif, a covering 
for the head. 

2163. Brae. The brow or slope of a hill. 

2168. Bracken. The large fern of temperate 
regions. 

2192. Balquidder. The braes of Balquidder ex- 
tend along the north side of Lake Voil. The 
village at the east end of the lake is the burial place 
of Rob Roy and his wife Helen. Scott says: "The 
heath on the Scottish moorlands is often set fire to, 
that the sheep may have the advantage of the young 
herbage produced, in the room of the tough old 
heather plants. This custom (execrated by sports- 
men) produces occasionally the most beautiful 
nocturnal appearances, similar almost to the discharge 
of a volcano. ' ' 

2199. Coil. Confusion or tumult. 

2201. Loch Doine. A small lake forming almost 
a continuous sheet of water with Loch Voil, and 
emptying into Loch Lubnaig by the Balvaig River. 
The scene is noted for its air of solitude. 

2204. Strath-Gartney. North side of the basin 
of Loch Katrine. 

2205. Each man might claim. Poetic omission of 
the relative. 

2221 ... No oath but by his chieftain 's hand. 
The deep and implicit respect paid by the Highland 
clansmen to their chief, rendered this both a common 
and a solemn oath. In other respects, they were 
like most savage nations, capricious in their ideas 
concerning the obligatory power of oaths. One 



Notes 235 

solemn mode of swearing was by kissing the dirk, 
imprecating upon themselves death by that or a 
similar weapon, if they broke their vow. But for 
oaths in the usual form, they are said to have had 
little respect. (Scott.) 

2229-2231. Rednock, Cardross, Duchray. Castles in 
the vicinity of Lochs Menteith and Con. See map. 

2244. Coir-nan-Uriskin. See 1870 above. 

2263. Still. Why not stillness? 

2294. A single page. Scott says: "A Highland 
chief being as absolute in his patriarchical authority 
as any prince, had a corresponding number of officers 
attached to his person. ' ' 

2335. Ave Maria. Hail Mary! A salutation to 
the Virgin Mary at the beginning of a prayer for her 
intercession. 

2399. Bochastle's plain. See I, 106 above. 

CANTO FOURTH 

2405. Wilding. Poetic for wild. 

2419. Braes of Donne. The undulating country 
north of the Teith. Doune is a village about half 
way between Callander and Stirling. 

2435. Bonne. Prepared. 

2443. The warrior's plaid, etc. That is, the war- 
rior can endure it; his plaid is sufficient shelter for 
him, — "But Norman, etc. " 

2463. The Taghairm. The Highlanders, like all 
rude people, had various superstitious modes of in- 
quiring into futurity. One of the most noted was 
the Taghairm mentioned in the text. A person 
was wrapped up in the skin of a newly-slain bullock, 
and deposited beside a waterfall, or at the bottom of 
a precipice, or in some other strange, wild, and 
unusual situation, where the scenery around him 
suggested nothing but objects of horror. In this 
situation he revolved in his mind the question pro- 
posed, and whatever was impressed upon him by 



236 The Lady of the Lake 

his exalted imagination passed for the inspiration 
of the disembodied spirits who haunt the desolate 
recesses. (Scott.) 

2468. Gallangad. In the vicinity of Loch Lomond. 
The incident given was a real experience in one of 
Rob Roy 's raids. 

2474. BeaV maha. "The pass of the plain," op- 
posite Inch-Cailliach, near the southeastern shore 
of Loch Lomond. 

2477. Dennan 's Row. At the foot of Ben Lomond, 
about six miles from Beal' maha. 

2484. Hero's Targe. A rock in the forest of 
Glenfinlas, by which a tumultuary cataract takes 
its course. (Scott.) 

2498. Broke. Quartered. Everything belonging to 
the chase was matter of solemnity among our an- 
cestors; but nothing was more so than the mode of 
cutting up, or, as it was technically called, breaking 
the slaughtered stag. The forester had his allotted 
portion; the hounds had a certain allowance; and, 
to make the division as general as possible, the very 
birds had their share also. (Scott.) 

2 S3 2 - Which spills, etc. Though this be in the 
text described as a response of the Taghairm, or 
Oracle of the Hide, it was of itself an augury frequent- 
ly attended to. The fate of the battle was often 
anticipated in the imagination of the combatants 
by observing which party first shed blood. It is 
said that the Highlanders under Montrose were so 
deeply imbued with this notion that, on the morn- 
ing of the battle of Tippermoor, they murdered a 
defenseless herdsman, whom they found in the 
fields, merely to secure an advantage of so much 
consequence to their party. (Scott.) 

2550. At Donne. See 2419 above, and V, 3690 
below. 

2552-2553. Silver star. . . .sable pale. Emblems of 
heraldry, the pale being a dark vertical band through 



Notes 257 

the middle of a shield. The Earls of Moray and 
Mar were supporters of the king. 

2560. Clans of Earn. Of the district about Loch 
Earn. 

2574. Stance. Station; foundation. 

2598. By the red streamers. That is, by the 
Northern Lights. 

2612. Fixed and high. This is printed "fixed on 
high" in many editions, but is plainly a misprint. 
Douglas's purpose was not "on high" at all, but 
was solely to save his friends at the sacrifice of 
self, a very high purpose but not at all one fixed 
"on high" as that phrase is used. 

2623. Trowed. Believed; trusted. 

2631. C 'ambus -kenneth's fane. A famous abbey 
about a mile east of Stirling. 

2661, etc. The Ballad. Chosen by the Minstrel, 
doubtless, to cheer Ellen by the narrative of the 
courage and boldness of Alice Brand and by the 
happy issue of her troubles. 

2677. Pall. A rich material of which palls or 
mantles were made. 

2683. Darkling. In the dark; a poetic word. 

2685. Vair. The fur of the squirrel. 

2698. Woned. Dwelt. 

2704. Elfin Queen. li Fairies," Scott says, "like 
other proprietors of forests, are peculiarly jealous 
of their rights to wood and game. ' ' 

2706. The fairies fatal green. As the Daoine Shi', 
or Men of Peace, wore green habits, they were sup- 
posed to take offense when any mortals ventured 
to assume their favorite color. Indeed, from some 
reason, which has been, perhaps, originally a general 
superstition, green is held in Scotland to be unlucky 
to particular tribes and counties. (Scott.) 

2707. Up, Urgan, up! Urgan is evidently the 
messenger of the Elfin King. See 2719 below. 

2708. Wert christened man. The Elves were sup- 
posed to envy the privileges acquired by Christian 



238 The Lady of the Lake 

initiation, and they gave to those mortals who fell 
into their power a certain precedence, founded upon 
this advantageous distinction. I presume that in the 
Danish ballad, the obstinacy of the "Weiest Elf, " 
who would not flee for cross or sign, is to be derived 
from the circumstance of his having been ' ' christened 
man." (Scott.) See also note on 2745 below. 

2740, etc. Section xv is to be understood as the 
reply of the * 'demon elf ' (2736) to the question just 
asked. It was supposed that mortals once enticed into 
the subterraneous abodes of the Elfin King and there 
participating in their banquets, were ever after held 
in captivity. 

2745. But all is glistening show. No fact respect- 
ing Fairyland seems to be better ascertained than 
the fantastic and illusory nature of their apparent 
pleasure and splendor. (Scott.) 

2757. But wist I. But if I knew. 

2771. Dunfermline. About seventeen miles north- 
west of Edinburgh; long the residence of the Scottish 
kings. 

2787. Bourne. Spelled also bourn. A stream or 
rivulet. 

2792. Augur scathe. Predict harm or mischief. 

2800. Unknown to him, etc. See 2544-2545 above. 

2810. Feud. See Introduction, p. 184. 

281 1. Bochastle. See I, 106 above. 

2812. Stirling gate. See II, 1424 above and note. 
2833. // yet he is. If yet he lives. 

2837. Train. Lure or enticement. 

2871. Lordship. Possessions in lands or estates. 

2873. Reck of. I, who care for neither estate nor 
land. 

2900. Fared. Went. The original meaning of 
the word. The Anglo Saxon faran means to go. 
To fare well is literally to go on well. 

2906. Weeds. Garments. 

2931-2932. Allan, Devan. Beautiful streams 
tributary to the Forth. 



Notes 239 

2953. And felt our chief 's unconquered blade. This 
instance of the cruelty of Roderick quickens our 
sympathy with the king's efforts to restore law and 
order. 

2967. Batten. To fatten. 

2990. The toils are pitched. Toils — nets or snares. 
There is a touching pathos in the song of Blanche. 
Her half-crazed mind is restored for the moment at 
sight of the Lincoln green, and her song of warning 
carries conviction to Fitz-James's mind. The hunt- 
ers, of course, are Roderick's men; Fitz-James, the 
stag of ten; and the wounded doe, Blanche herself. 

2994. Stag of ten. With ten branches on his 
antlers. 

3042. Daggled. Wet, or soaked with blood. 

3072. Wreak. Avenge. 

3086. Favor. A gift or token of love. Such gifts 
of lady love were frequently worn by knights. 

3 100-3 10 1 Of all my rash adventures past, etc. 
By necessity for rhyme Scott is betrayed into a slight 
inaccuracy of statement. He means, of course, that 
this must be the last of his rash adventures, not of 
his past rash adventures. 

3105. At Doune. See 2419 and 2550 above. 

31 11. Darkling. See 2683 above. 

3122. The summer solstice. The heat of summer. 

3146. Slip. Let loose from their slips or nooses, 
to start upon the chase. 

3162. Hardened -flesh. Considered a great delicacy 
by Scottish Highlanders in former times. Without 
being cooked it was compressed between two batons 
of wood so as to press out the blood and render it 
extremely hard. 

3172. A mighty augury is laid. That of the Tag- 
hairm. See 2532-2533 above. 

3185. Stock. See I, 130 above. 

3187. As far as Coilantogle's ford. When Fitz- 
James had reached this ford on the river Teith, 
just below Lake Vennachar, he would be in a dis- 



240 The Lady of the Lake 

trict loyal to the king, and therefore no longer under 
the hospitable protection of the Highland Chief. 

CANTO FIFTH 

3206. Shine martial Faith, and Courtesy's bright 
star. The figure in this opening stanza is a fitting 
introduction to the combat, in which Roderick and 
Fitz- James, though mortal enemies, win our admira- 
tion by their knightly courage and courtesy. 

3213. Muttered. . . .by. That is, said over hastily. 

3220. Wildering. See I, 274 above. 

3230. Bursting through. As they burst through; 
not strictly grammatical. 

3244. Shingles. Coarse gravel. 

3306. Regent. See 3322 below. 

3307. With ruffian dagger, etc. See II, 966 above 
and note. 

3322. Albany. The Duke of Albany, a son of a 
younger brother of James III, was invited by the 
Scottish nobles to assume the regency on the death 
of James IV. His short rule was weak and inefficient. 

3324-3325. Mewed in Stirling tower. 

Was stranger to respect and power. 
Scott says here : ' ' There is scarcely a more disorderly 
period in Scottish history than that which succeeded 
the Battle of Flodden, and occupied the minority 
of James V. Feuds of ancient standing broke out 
like old wounds, and every quarrel among the 
independent nobility, which occurred daily, and 
almost hourly, gave rise to fresh bloodshed. ' ' For 
further details concerning this period, see Introduc- 
tion, pp. 187, 188. The lines in the text seem slightly 
inaccurate historically. James escaped to Stirling 
tower, and instead of being * 'mewed" or impris- 
oned there, soon afterwards succeeded in banishing 
the hostile Douglases from Scotland. 

3341. Were once the birthright of the Gael. See 
Introduction, p. 186. 



Notes 241 

3351. Belong the target and claymore. See Intro- 
duction, p. 1S5. 

3367. Seek other cause 'gainst Roderick Dhu. 
The Gaels, great traditional historians, never forgot 
that the Lowlands had, at some remote period, been 
the property of their Celtic forefathers, which fur- 
nished an ample vindication of all the ravages that 
they could make on the unfortunate districts which 
lay within their reach. (Scott.) 

3396. Wild as, etc. Note how the startling effect 
is made emphatic by change of accent in the first 
foot of 3396, 3398, 3399, and 3401. 

3451. Jack. A coat of leather set with rings of 
iron. 

3471. Without a pass from Roderick Dhu. Scott 
says : : ' This incident, like some other passages in the 
poem, illustrative of the character of the ancient Gael, 
is not imaginary, but borrowed from fact. The High- 
landers, with the inconsistency of most nations in 
the same state, were alternately capable of great 
exertions of generosity and of cruel revenge and per- 
fidy. The following story I can only quote from 
tradition, but with such an assurance from those by 
whom it was communicated as permits me little doubt 
of its authenticity. Early in the last century, John 
Gunn, a noted Cateran, or Highland robber, infested 
Inverness -shire, and levied black-mail up to the 
walls of the provincial capital. A garrison was then 
maintained in the castle of that town, and their pay 
(country banks being unknown) was usually trans- 
mitted in specie under the guard of a small escort. 
It chanced that the officer who commanded this 
little party was unexpectedly obliged to halt, about 
thirty miles from Inverness, at a miserable inn. 
About nightfall, a stranger in the Highland dress, 
and of very prepossessing appearance, entered the 
same house. Separate accommodation being impos- 
sible, the Englishman offered the newly-arrived 
guest a part of his supper, which was accepted with 



242 The Lady of the Lake 

reluctance. By the conversation he found his new 
acquaintance knew well all the passes of the 
country, which induced him eagerly to request his 
company on the ensuing morning. He neither dis- 
guised his business and charge, nor his apprehen- 
sions of that celebrated freebooter, John Gunn. The 
Highlander hesitated a moment, and then frankly con- 
sented to be his guide. Forth they set in the morn- 
ing; and in traveling through a solitary and dreary 
glen, the discourse again turned on John Gunn. 
'Would you like to see him?' said the guide; and 
without waiting an answer to this alarming ques- 
tion, he whistled, and the English officer, with his 
small party, were surrounded by a body of High- 
landers, whose numbers put resistance out of ques- 
tion, and who were all well-armed. 'Stranger/ 
resumed the guide, 'I am that very John Gunn by 
whom you feared to be intercepted, and not without 
cause; for I came to the inn last night with the 
express purpose of learning your route, that I and 
my followers might ease you of your charge by the 
road. But I am incapable of betraying the trust 
you reposed in me, and having convinced you that 
you were in my power, I can only dismiss you 
unplundered and uninjured. ' He then gave the 
officer directions for his journey, and disappeared 
with his party as suddenly as they had presented 
themselves. ' ' 

3486. Plover. How pronounced? 

3497. From Vennachar, etc. The "three mighty 
lakes" are Katrine, Achray, and Vennachar. Scott 
says: "The torrent which discharges itself from 
Loch Vennachar, the lowest and eastmost of the 
three lakes which form the scenery adjoining to the 
Trosachs, sweeps through a flat and extensive moor 
called Bochastle. Upon a small eminence called 
the Dun of Bochastle, and, indeed, on the plain 
itself, are some intrenchments which have been 
thought Roman." 



Notes 243 

3548. Homage. Fealty or submission to the king. 

35 54- Carpet knight. An effeminate hero of the 
drawing room rather than a knight who has known 
the hardships of the field. 

3578. His targe he threw. A round target of light 
wood, covered with strong leather, and studded with 
brass or iron, was a necessary part of a Highlander's 
equipment. In charging regular troops, they re- 
ceived the thrust of the bayonet in this buckler, 
twisted it aside, „and used the broadsword against 
the encumbered soldier. . . A person thus armed had 
a considerable advantage in private fray. (Scott.) 

3664. Bonne. See IV, 2436 above. 

3683. Carhonie's hill. About a mile from Loch 
Vennachar. 

3688. Torry, Lendrick, etc. Towns on the banks 
of the Teith between Callander and Stirling. They 
were familiar and dear to Scott, being the homes of 
intimate friends. 

3690. The bannered towers of Donne. The ruins 
of Doune Castle, formerly the residence of the Earls 
of Menteith, now the property of the Earl of Moray, 
are situated at the confluence of the Ardoch and the 
Teith. (Scott.) 

3723. Saint Serle. An obscure saint; chosen for 
necessity of rhyme. 

3724. The banished Earl. See Introduction, p. 188 
3732. Cambns-kenneth's abbey gray. See on IV, 

2631 above. 

3748. A Donglas, etc. The fate of William, the 
eighth Earl of Douglas, whom James II stabbed in 
Stirling Castle with his own hanh, and while under 
his royal safe-conduct, is familiar to all who read 
Scottish history. (Scott.) 

3749. O sad and fatal mound. An eminence on 
the northeast of Stirling Castle, where state crimi- 
nals were executed. Stirling was often polluted 
with noble blood. (Scott.) 



244 The Lady of the Lake 

3756. Franciscan steeple. The church of the Grey- 
friars, built on a hill near the castle by James IV, in 

1594. 

3760. Morrice-dancers. The Morrice-dance was 
probably of Spanish origin, the name itself derived 
from the Moorish dance. In England it was blended 
with the national May-day pageant of Robin Hood 
and his band. The dancers were gayly and gro- 
tesquely dressed and wore bells around their ankles. 
In addition to the characters mentioned in 381 2-3816 
below, there also were the fool piper, and later a 
hobby-horse and a dragon. 

3762. The burghers hold their sports to-day. Every 
burgh of Scotland of the least note, but more 
especially the considerable towns, had their solemn 
play or festival, when feats of archery were exhibited, 
and prizes distributed to those who excelled in 
wrestling, hurling the bar, and the other gymnastic 
exercises of the period. Stirling, a usual place of 
royal residence, was not likely to be deficient in pomp 
upon such occasions, especially since James V was 
very partial to them. His ready participation in 
these popular amusements was one cause of his 
acquiring the title of King of the Commons. (Scott.) 

3767. Tilter. One who thrusts with the lance on 
horseback. 

3769. Play my prize. That is, contend for the 
prizes in the contests. 

3770. Stark. Strong, vigorous. 

381 1. Butts. Targets; marks to be shot at. 

3812. Bold Robin Hood and all his band. Masquer- 
aders representing Robin Hood and his band. Scott 
says here: "The exhibition of this renowned out- 
law and his band was a favorite frolic at festivals . . . 
in which kings did not disdain to be actors. ' ' The 
names following belong to characters renowned in 
the Robin Hood ballads. 

3825. Fondly he watched with watery eye. See 
Canto II, 1477-1482 above. 



Notes 245 

3828. Archer wight. An ordinary archer. "The 
Douglas of the poem," says Scott, "is an imaginary 
person, a supposed uncle of the Earl of Angus. But 
the king 's behavior during an unexpected interview 
with the Laird of Kilspindie, one of the banished 
Douglases under circumstances similar to those in 
the text, is imitated from a real story told by Hume 
of Godscroft. " See Introduction, p. 188. 

3858. The Ladies' Rock. A hillock in the "val- 
ley" from which the ladies of the court witnessed 
the tourney. (Taylor.) 

3967. That knighthood, etc. How was knight- 
hood conferred? See Webster's Dictionary. 

3970-3993. A noble address! Why do you think 
so? See line 3994 below. 

4036. Cognizance. The distinguishing mark worn 
by an armed knight. See IV, 2552-2553 above. 

4085. Earl William. See 3748 above and note. 

CANTO SIXTH 

4143. Adventurers they. The Scottish armies con- 
sisted chiefly of the nobility and barons, with their 
vassals, who held lands under them, for military 
services by themselves and their tenants .... James V 
seems first to have introduced, in addition to the 
militia furnished from these sources, the service of 
a small number of mercenaries, who formed a body- 
guard, called the Foot-Band. (Scott.) 

4149. The Fleming. A citizen of Flanders. 

417 1. Burden. The chorus of a song. 

4186. Soldier's Song. The guard-room scene and 
the accompanying song have been criticised as the 
greatest blemish in the whole poem. But as Taylor 
suggests, it is a true picture of the life of the time, 
and we may be reconciled to such a piece of realism 
by the use which Scott has made of it, — "to show 
the power of beauty and innocence, and the chords 
of tenderness and goodness which lie ready to vibrate 
in the wildest natures. ' ' 



246 The Lady of the Lake 

4186. Poule. An old spelling of Paul. 

4188. Black-jack. A large leather vessel for beer. 
{Obsolete.) 

41 91. Upsees. Upsee-Dutch — in Dutch fashion. 
To drink upsee-Dutch — to drink in the Dutch 
fashion — that is, to drink deeply so as to be drunk. 
Scott seems to use this old adverb as a noun quite 
likely in the sense of upsee-Dutch. Drink upsees 
out; that is, drink deeply in carousal. 

4196. Gillian. Often contracted into Gill. Com- 
pare the proverb : ' ' Every Jack must have his Gill. ' ' 

4199. Placket and pot. Used figuratively for 
women and wine. 

4227. The leader of a juggler band. The jug- 
glers used to call in the aid of various assistants to 
render these performances as captivating as possible. 
The glee-maiden was a necessary attendant. Her 
duty was tumbling and dancing; and, therefore, the 
Anglo-Saxon version of Saint Mark's Gospel states 
Herodias to have vaulted or tumbled before King 
Herod. (Scott.) 

4232. Purvey. Provide. 

4263. / shame me. Used reflexively in a transi- 
tive sense; I am ashamed. 

4266. Needwood. Formerly a royal forest in 
Staffordshire. 

4279. Tullibardine (" the bard's knoll''). An old 
family seat of the Murrays about twenty miles from 
Stirling. 

4330. Barret-cap. A cap formerly worn by 
soldiers. The vacant purse shall be carried in his 
cap as a token or favor. See IV, 3084-3086 above. 

4344. But. A relative pronoun. 

4391. Leech. A physician or surgeon. 

4401. The chief he sought. As Allan had come 
from the scene of the fight, they deemed Roderick 
Dhu instead of Douglas to be his chief. 

4402. Prore. Poetic for prow. 



Notes 247 

4443. O'er Dermid's race. Evidently a rival Scot- 
tish clan. Scott says : ' ' There are several instances, 
at least in tradition, of persons so much attached to 
particular tunes as to require to hear them on their 
deathbed. ' ' 

4465, etc. Battle of Beat 'an Duine. Scott referring 
to the time of Cromwell remarks: "A skirmish 
actually took place at a pass thus called in theTrosachs, 
and closed with the remarkable incident mentioned in 
the text. It was greatly posterior in date to the 
date of James V. ' ' For the incident referred to, see 
xx below Note also the rapidity and liveliness 
given to the description of the battle by means of the 
shortened lines. 

4492. Bonne. See IV, 2435. 

4501. Battalia. Order of battle. 

4548. Tinchel. A circle of sportsmen. Scott says: 
"A circle of sportsmen, who, by surrounding a great 
space, and gradually narrowing, brought immense 
quantities of deer together, which usually made 
desperae efforts to break through the Tinchel." 

4571. Rout. The state of being disorganized and 
thrown into confusion; said especially of an army 
defeated, or put to flight in disorder or panic. 

4583. Bracklinn's chasm. See II, 1015 above. 

4584. Linn. See I, 71 above. 

4635. Bonnet-pieces. Gold coins on which the 
king's head was represented with a cap or bonnet 
instead of a crown. 

4661. Duncraggan 's widowed dame. See III, 2050- 
2063. 

4672. Elemental rage. Rage of the elements; in 
reference to the storm. 

4682. Bothwell 's Lord. Douglas. See II, 886 note. 

4706. Breadalbane's boast, etc. See note on II, 
1 153 and 1 161 above. 

4727. Even she. Ellen of course. A beautiful 
and pathetic suggestion. See III, 2369-2371 above. 



248 The Lady of the Lake 

4734. Storied pane. The glass of the windows 
decorated with historical paintings. 

4836. And Snowdoun 's Knight is Scotland's King! 
Scott says that this incident is borrowed from 
Scottish tradition. 

4861. Death-feud stern. See Introduction, p. 184 

4880. To speed. To favorable issue. 

4885. The name of Snowdoun claims. William of 
"Worcester, who wrote about the middle of the 
fifteenth century, calls Stirling Castle Snowdoun. 
(Scott.) 

4887. Thus watch I 'er insulted laws. See Char- 
acter and Reign of James V, p. 188. 

4938. Harp of the North, farewell! Compare with 
the three opening stanzas of the poem. 

4942. Resume thy wizard elm. Compare note 
on witch-elm, I, 2 above. 




SUGGESTIONS 
lb TEACHERS 





WHEN the poet himself read to a farmer friend 
the first canto of The Lady of the Lake, the 
old man, lost in the reality of the scene, sud- 
denly exclaimed that the hounds would be ruined by 
taking to the water so soon after a severe chase. To 
secure a like vividness of impression should be the 
keynote in teaching this particular piece of literature. 
It is a romantic poem, and for many years now chil- 
dren have read it with delighted interest for this very 
reason. What they like in it is the king's disguise, 
Ellen's beauty and coquetry and loyalty; the rivalry 
between Malcolm Graham and Roderick Dhu; the 
combat between King and Scottish Chief; Douglas's 
feats of strength in the Scottish games; and finally 
the happy outcome of the story at the close. Whatever 
will heighten the vividness of this wholesome romantic 
interest should be drawn upon by the teacher. With 
this purpose in mind the introduction gives a bit 
of Scottish history intimately connected with the 
meaning and spirit of the poem, and a biography of 
the author whose own heroic and romantic life is itself 
an expression of the noblest characteristics of 
British manhood. The notes have been enriched 
by the poet's own explanations of Scottish tradition 
and history, and finally the text has been illustrated 
by choice pictures of the scenery of the poem. In 
accordance with the main purpose of this plan of 
editing, a few specific suggestions to teachers may 
possibly aid somewhat in realizing the spirit of the 
poem: 

[249] 



250 The Lady of the Lake 

i. It should not be forgotten that the effectiveness 
of poetry must appeal first of all to the ear. Some 
simple instruction, therefore, should be given as to 
the meter of the poem, and the adaptation of the 
four-foot measure to rapid and vigorous narrative. 
For an interesting account of Scott 's personal prefer- 
ence for this form of verse, see No. 5 below, under 
references to Lockhart's Life; also the Introduction 
(Scott's Biography), p. 200. 

2. Let the pupils read the poem aloud, seeking 
to bring out the movement of the verse, the vivid 
picturing of scenery, and the vigor of the narrative. 
Such an appreciative reading on the part of any 
pupil should be considered in itself an excellent recita- 
tion. Frequently in such instances a hearty word 
of approval: "Good, you have caught the poet's 
spirit," is sufficient comment. Let the teacher 
herself read with animation some of the more spirited 
passages with such comment only as will aid in 
kindling the imagination and feeling of her class. 

3. The best fruit of such instruction as is here 
outlined would be a natural interest to know more 
of Scottish history or of Scott himself and his works. 
Bright children who have the time and inclination 
might be assigned for reading and for oral or written 
report to the class some chapters from Scott's 
Tales of a Grandfather — say chapters vii to xii, 
including the story of Sir William Wallace, and the 
rise of Robert the Bruce. Quite possibly Jane 
Porter's Scottish Chiefs or better still Scott's Mar- 
mion y and if the complete novels be thought too 
long, abridgments of Quentin Durward or Ivanhoe 
would be read through by some members of the class, 
if the library is furnished with the books and their 
attention called to them. 

4. As to the biography of Scott, Hutton's Life 
in the English Men of Letters Series is the best brief 
biography. Lockhart's Life is of course the standard 
work, and should be in the school library. A cheap 



Suggestions to Teachers 251 

and very good edition is published by Houghton, 
Mifflin & Company (The Riverside Press), nine 
volumes in three. For the teacher's convenience, 
the following passages are suggested as of especial 
interest for reading or report: 

1. Poem descriptive of the poet's childhood 
(Vol. I, chapter ii, p. 107). 2. His favorite horse 
and dogs (Vol. II, chap, xiv, p. 202). His ex- 
ploration of the Tweed and crossing the ford (same 
chapter, pp. 204-208). 3. Scott's personal appear- 
ance and characteristics (Vol. II, chap, xv, p. 236; 
chap, xvi, p. 256; Vol. VI, chap, lix, pp. 316-325). 
4. His treatment of his children (Vol. II, chap, 
xvii, pp. 322-326). 5. Scott's own discussion of 
the versification of The Lady of the Lake Of 
especial interest to the teacher (Vol. Ill, chap, xx, 
pp. iio-iii). 6. A most interesting account of 
Washington Irving 's visit to Abbotsford. The walk 
with Scott and his dogs, as described by Irving, 
gives a most graphic and interesting portrait of the 
poet (Vol. V, pp. 53-57). 7. A delightful sketch of 
the hospitality at Abbotsford, of a hunting party 
starting out in the morning, and the pet pig trying 
to join the party (Vol. VI, pp. 36-41). 8. An 
excellent bit of comment on The Lady of the Lake 
(Vol. VI, chap, liii, p. 147). 

5 . On the side of formal instruction, an earnest word 
to the teacher, lest, in her attempt to do exhaustive 
or critical work, she destroy the flavor of the poem. 
Let not the romantic interest be lost through gram- 
matical or rhetorical questions or through the deadly 
paraphrase. Two suggestions, however, seem to the 
editor not inconsistent with the general character 
of the poem: 

On nearly every page will be found examples of 
inverted order, the periodic sentence. As a matter 
of interpretation it is important that children should 
habituate their minds to a quick recognition of these 
sentences and of their effect. 



2^2 The Lady of the Lake 

Take for instance the vivid description of the stag, 
Canto I, lines 116-119. 

For jaded now, and spent with toil, 

Embossed with foam, and dark with soil, 

While every gasp with sobs he drew, 

The laboring stag strained full in view. 

What groups of ideas must be held in mind that 
we may see the stag ? ' ' Jaded, ' ' ' - spent with toil, ' ' 
etc. As we hold these in mind, note how strongly 
the final line comes out : ' ' The laboring stag strained 
full in view. ' ' Try putting this vivid line first. 

Such questioning repeated now and then through the 
poem, especially upon the longer periodic sentences, 
will aid not a little in the interpretation of such 
groups of lines as the first eight of Canto III, lines 
1618-1626. 

The second suggestion has reference to diction. 
The study of words is likely to become monotonous to 
children. The editor believes that an interest can 
be awakened in them by a simple talk upon their 
great worth. They are our richest possession ; we need 
a large storehouse of them to express our thoughts. 
Above all we can never think clearly until we know 
the exact meaning of the words we are using, and 
can never understand another completely until his 
words are understood. Let us get rid of the hazy 
notion of things while we study together the mean- 
ings of words. For instance, above we have the 
phrase: " Embossed with foam." Just what does 
embossed mean? Here is a group of lines, simple 
in the ideas suggested, but not to be understood 
until we know the exact meaning of the italicized 
words.' 

The falcon from her cairn on high, 

Cast on the rout a wondering eye. 
Woe worth the chase, woe worth the day, 

That cost thy life, my gallant grey! 
Wild crests as pagod ever decked, 

Or mosque of Eastern architect. 



Suggestions to Teachers 253 

How would it do for a little while to make an 
alphabetical list of the new words we learn in The 
Lady of the Lake? An interesting habit of James 
Russell Lowell, our poet and man of letters, was to 
write upon the fly leaf of books he was reading the new 
words he came upon, or the words happily chosen. 

In conclusion the editor is constrained to say that 
the teaching of literature is a difficult thing. We 
are all familiar with the oft-repeated statement that 
it can not be taught. But it certainly can be taught 
in the sense that the teacher, out of her larger culture 
and enthusiasm for literature, may greatly aid her 
pupils in their appreciation and enjoyment of the 
author before them. Indeed, may she not awaken 
in some minds a love for literature which would never 
have been begotten, it may be, without her comrade- 
ship in the class recitation? And to help a child 
to do for himself what he could not have done alone, 
is not this the very highest art of teaching ? 

Space forbids further pedagogical discussion of 
this very interesting subject, but the editor could 
wish that every teacher might read and lay to heart 
Mr. S. S. Laurie's admirable chapter on "Language 
as Literature" in his little book, Language and Lin- 
guistic Method (Edinburgh: James Thin, Publisher 
to the University). A single paragraph in quotation 
may aptly close these brief suggestions to teachers. 
Referring to the teaching of literature, Mr. Laurie 
says: n Asa matter of fact, it is notorious that many 
schoolmasters cannot shake off their hardness, their 
pedantry, in this field of instruction any more than 
in that of religion ; and the result is that literature in 
the school resolves itself into a list of literary names 
and dates, and sinks into the examination of words, 
and grammatical and historical forms and facts. A 
play of Shakespeare or Milton's "Lycidas" is read 
with a view to its anatomy, not to what the poems 
convey to the intellect and emotions — the satisfaction 



254 



The Lady of the Lake 



of the ideal in man. In the editions used the product 
of the artist is lost in a monstrous superfetation of 
notes. Why do so many teachers make lessons of 
everything?' ' 



JUL 27 1910 



